Learning from my 8th graders

I have a wonderfully amazing group of girls that I am blessed to lead in Bible study every week. We have a great time together, though it can be extremely hard to keep everyone focused. If you have ever had 15 eighth grade girls in one room, you'd understand. They can definitely test my patience. ;-) But tonight we had one extra leader, so we split the group in half, leaving me with only 8 girls. It was definitely a easier number to handle. We really had some great discussion and it was neat to see where they all are spiritually. Then when we held hands around the table and started to pray, I was amazed at what I heard.

Each girl in turn began to pray for the leaders of our country, for the war, and for the upcoming election. We hadn't talked about any of this stuff in our discussion, yet they were thinking to bring it all before God in prayer. I was seriously amazed, for two reasons. One, I can hardly even find high school and college students who know or care to know anything about our country's leaders, yet here are the jr. highers praying for them. And two, as a Christian I am called to pray for the leaders of my nation and the surrounding nations, but how many times in the past few months have I lifted them in prayer? I was reminded tonight that I need to get on top my job of praying.

As I continued to listen to them bring their hearts before God I noticed one more thing. One of the girls began praying for the election, and let God know that she trusted Him. She asked that He would remain in charge of the election and that He would bring the right person to office according to His plan, despite what her opinions and desires were.

I discovered then that her heart was right where mine should be. Instead of praying and begging to God that my presidential "pick" should win, I should be letting Him know that I trust His plan, even if it seems scary to me or doesn't make sense. Instead of this fighting, even between Christians, of who "needs" to win office, we should be giving it up to God. Even though we, "the humans" rule our country, He is still ultimately in control.

Yes we still need to strive to be greatly informed, so we can make the best decision possible when it comes to voting. Yes we still need to vote, we desperately need to vote and to pray about our voting on leaders and props. (Admitting to God that He is in charge doesn't mean I need to slack on my responsibilities as a citizen) But I need to not stress about the future of my nation, no matter how bleak it may look at times. I need to bring it before God instead. He raises leaders up, and He brings them down, and everything He does, He does well.

Thank You Lord for my amazing girls and all the things they are teaching me.