a good little dirty heart

this is that jon jackson, you know the guy married to that Dani girl, anyway, she wanted me to share something with ya'll.

Backstory:
Zoey has been making a habit of unbuckling her seatbelt and standing in her car seat as soon as we stop, and we decided recently that she needed to stop doing that (as more than once it ended up with a knee or elbow in Noelle's seat) and warned her thus-ly.

The Story:
So when we got home tonight, when i turned the car off i was talking with Dani about a fantastic coupon i found on some business cards today - Seemed interesting at the time, but typing it out like that, it must have been boring the life out of her - i digress...

After talking for a minute or two, Zoey's little head popped up between the seats, which meant her little bottom was not in her chair, so we reminded her of the rule, that she stays in her seat until we open the door to get her out. So after another minute or so, she was standing in her chair, that's when i informed her she would be receiving a spanking for her decision to disobey, at which point, she quickly sat in her chair and announced: "I'm obeying now!"

"That's great!" i said, "But you're still getting a spanking, because you chose to disobey a minute ago"

So i opened her door and told her to go wait for me on the naughty bench.

She was there when i came in to talk with her, and the following (paraphrased) conversation took place.

"Do you know why you're getting a spanking?"

"Because i stood up in my chair and i didn't mean to"

"And what were you supposed to be doing?"

"Sitting on my bottom."

"That's Right, and because you chose to disobey, and not listen to Daddy and Momma, this spanking is a consequence of your choice to disobey.
This spanking is the consequence of the sin of disobedience this time. Do you understand?"

- she interrupted me at some point here, and said

"sin is death" or "sin means death", or "wages of sin is death"

- i was a bit suprised at that, i mean, she knows John 3:16 and we've been working on Romans 6:23, but who knew she was actually paying attention - so i said

"That's right, for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ out Lord"

"I'm I going to die?" she asked

-that question made my stomach drop -

"Yes" i said "If you don't accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, and confess and forsake your sins, and ask Him for forgivness, you will die" i clarified "you won't die right now, or right away, but when you die if you don't know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, you will go to hell forever and not be with Jesus in heaven"

"Oh" she said

"But Zoey you don't have to die, you can accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior any time you want to, just come ask Mommy or Daddy any time and we'll talk to you about how you can do that"


All i can say is Wow, she's listening, there's a little 3 year old heart that's searching for the truth, i don't think it's a coicedence that these last couple of weeks have been particularly hard for her to be obedient, and "be a good girl" i think even at this young age, the enemy is attempting to block the truth from taking hold. I pray we can be consistent examples of God's love and grace to her precious heart.

on a lighter note, follow her quazi-evangelical (for the time being anyway) tweets @zoeyjackson