Big News in the Simmerman House!!!

We have some huge news in the Simmerman House today! 

1. 

On Friday June 28, 2013 at the dinner table, Paulie accepted Jesus as his Savior!  We had been noticing some issues with Paulie getting very angry, saying "hate" a lot, and just seemingly unable to obey without a fight.  It was very discouraging.  And I know that a lot of you may think that is just normal little boy stuff, but it was such a deviation from our little "Joy Warrior."  (God showed me a picture of Paulie's identity as a strong Warrior in the spirit world... The joy in his heart would be what his greatest weapon would be).

Anyway, today we had quite a bit of prayer about something that happened with Paulie this morning.  Paul and I were both deeply troubled by what Paulie was doing.  And both Paul and I felt strongly that Paulie really needed Jesus in his life.  I asked Paulie why he did what he did this morning and he said he didn't know.  I told him that I knew and did he want me to tell him?  He said yes.  I told him that he is a slave to sin, that we all are, but there was super great news!  Jesus came to free us and save us!  He was very happy about this.  I asked him if he wanted to ask Jesus to save him from sin and come live in his heart.  He said, "Jesus can you save me from my sin?" and we all cheered and his eyes changed in an instant.  He was filled with such joy!  I then told him to ask Jesus to fill him with the Holy Spirit, which Paulie did.

Audrey and Paulie have been talking all day about how wonderful it is that we are all Christians now!  We are thrilled.  Paulie seems different.  I know that he seems young, but we just read in Matthew that the greatest in the kingdom of heaven are those who humble themselves like a little child.  Paulie is definitely great in the kingdom... a Joy Warrior... a Christian.  We are so blessed!

2. 

On Wednesday June 26, 2013 Audrey's first tooth fell out!  She was beyond excited.  I have never seen a child this excited before about a tooth falling out.  She was jumping up and down, she and Paulie were hugging each other and so excited.  So Audrey put her tooth in a little tooth box and put it under her pillow.  I kept telling her not to shake it or lose it.  I took the tooth out of the box, left the empty box and left her an envelope under her pillow.  She came into our room at 4am crying saying "something happened about my tooth!"  I told her to go look under her pillow for the envelope.  She came back 30 seconds later waving the envelope saying "Look what I got!"  Paul said, "Go to bed!"  LOL.

Since we didn't have this blog when Audrey accepted Jesus, here is her story:  On Tuesday Feb 11th, 2013 our sweet Audrey Accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior of her life. She is very familiar with Him and is very familiar with the Bible, but on Tuesday she was very aware of her "wrong" in fighting with her brother. It is hard to explain what Jesus did for us on the cross to a 4 year old. I was going on about the fact that Jesus "took her place" for any mistake that she makes... finally Paul Simmerman said "Think of it this way Audrey, if you had done something wrong and we were going to spank you, and then Paulie (her brother) came up and said, "Hold on a second, Spank me instead. I will take her punishment for her." That is what it means that Jesus took our place. Audrey's eyes got really big with understanding. I said "Isn't that great news Audrey?" and she said "Oh YES!" I cried as she repeated a prayer thanking Jesus for taking her place and for loving her sooooo much. What a privilege to get to lead my daughter to Jesus. She is visibly different. It is amazing! She will be 5 next month. Such a blessing!