She Made My Heart Stop

Often, when I'm frustrated or weary, I sing hymns. It always settles that anxious feeling. 

Yesterday, as I finalized grades and prepared to recieve yet another student in my class on Monday I started to sing "It Is Well with My Soul". My daughters were hanging out in my classroom, waiting to go home as I rushed and hurried to get things done. 

I sang through the first verse as I stapled learning goals to my bulletin board and as I came the chorus I started hearing the echo or alto part of the hymn being sang back to me. I froze and turned to see Micaela watching and waiting for the next part of the song. 

I kept singing, "It is well..."
and she immediately responded, "It is well"
I continued, "With my soul."
And she flapped her hands excitedly to repeat, "With my soul!"

She knew the whole chorus. And then, when I stopped singing completely, she switched roles and did the melody while I echoed back.

I'm telling you. My heart stopped and I had goosebumps all up and down my arms. Here is my little girl who didn't walk or talk until she was five and now she is singing hymns on pitch. 

I'm thinking there was a lot of seeds planted in her heart and soul that I'm just now started to see grow within her. 

We all have things that are planted in the soil of our heart. I am so thankful that God is a faithful gardener, willing to keep tending me even when I worry and fret and distract myself. I am so very thankful when I see good things growing in my daughters, things that have been planted in them with careful attention by my Heavenly Father. 

This year, I've been enjoying seeing my older daughter, Adela, express her faith as she encourages ME. If I express any discouragement, she is eager to lift me up and remind me of God's plans and goodness. 

I love see this process of watching the seeds of God's goodness and truth grow in my daughters and myself. It helps me stay in the good fight and run the race that God has set before us. 

And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Matthew 13:3-8, ESV

Are you ever surprised or thankful to see the seeds growing in yourself?