One night, I did dorm coverage and it was an eventful night!
First off, the dorm boys get a snack during devotions most nights, which is not required. They are not always grateful for the snacks and it is frustrating when they do not appreciate the services and privileges that are given to them. Some of them can have a very entitled mentality. So, when there was grumbling that night about the snack, I was impatient and frustrated with it. During devotions, I took the opportunity to discuss this issue of how we need to be grateful, and content, and satisfied with what we have. The boys don't work for any of their food—whether eating in the cafeteria or the dorm. It is bought and prepared for them and they sit and eat it. They're not starving or on the streets or digging through a garbage pile. Snacks are a privilege, not a necessity. They can be taken away.
Rant over, I declared a minute of silence and stillness (yeah right), partly because of their squirminess and partly because I needed to figure out what passage of scripture I should talk about.
I quickly tried to look up something in the Bible to read that sort of connected to what we had been talking about but wasn't taking it too overboard (as I tried to ignore the fact that they weren't be still or quiet).
I stumbled upon the "lay up your treasures in heaven" passage in Matthew 6. I decided we could talked about what are treasures on earth and why don't we want to store them up and what are treasures in heaven etc. I thought it could’ve been more effective, but I wasn't super prepared and their questions take up quite a bit of time anyway.
The amazing thing is that even with my inadequacy, unpreparedness, and impatience, God somehow used that night to touch two of the boys' hearts.
As we were talking about storing up treasures in heaven and on earth, I explained how the things we do on earth matter in heaven. And when we go to heaven, all our deeds on earth are going through a fire. Some things will be burned up (the treasures we stored on earth), but the things that we did for God, through God, and with God's help, will remain (the treasures we stored up in heaven). Somehow through this conversation, one of the boys (Boy #1), who is quite sensitive, started to cry a little and said he was scared. He didn’t know if he was saved or not. I asked him if he's prayed to receive Jesus. Then I tried to comfort him and remind him of God's promises. There's nothing we can do to be separated from His love. Some of the boys were being distracting, so I don't know if he heard all of what I was trying to tell him.
I moved on and answered other questions and kept talking. Another boy (Boy #2), whose salvation has been uncertain, asked, "um, Ok. So, how do you, like, know if you're saved?" Because this was a loaded question, and there were two other hands raised, I told him to hold on a moment while I answered the other two questions, which happened to be ridiculous. Fed up with the others’ distractions and really wanting to give this question the attention it deserved, I sent everyone except this boy upstairs to brush their teeth and get in bed. Boy #1 decided to stay behind too. So, I talked to Boy #2, walking him through the steps of the gospel to see if he understood and believed those things (I didn't know if he wasn't saved or if he was doubting). Then I asked both of them if they'd ever prayed to receive Jesus' salvation. They both were unsure (talking to Bill and Jen later, they said they'd never gotten a clear testimony out of Boy #2, but Boy #1’s testimony had been pretty clear, so he may have just been in a time of doubting). So I said, "If you're not sure then do you want to pray right now?" They both said yes! So, I got to pray the sinner's prayer with two precious boys that night! Then I hugged them both and Boy #2 said he was going to write this day down somewhere so he could remember.
We went upstairs and I prayed with each room of boys and then I had to go tell Bill and Jen. We ended up having a long conversation about all that happened that night during devotions—the kids' unruliness and ungratefulness and the two boys’ prayers. While we were talking about the unruliness and ungratefulness, Boy #2 walked in (this was before I'd gotten to the part about his prayer) and said his shoulder felt weird, like something was popping out even while he was lying still. He said it didn't hurt, so Jen was going send him back to bed. But before she did, she asked if there was something else on his mind that was keeping him from sleeping. Like, was he good during devotions, were other people good, was he feeling guilty? So, I asked him, "Do you wanna tell her?" And he said a little bashfully, "So, today I wasn't sure if I was saved and then I just prayed with Aunt Meredith to be saved." It was amazing that God would cause him to get up and come to us and allow him to tell Bill and Jen about his salvation before I could tell them! Jen was able to talk with him a little more about it and answered a question that he had before he went back to bed. His question was, "What if I stop believing in Jesus and stop loving him?"
SO, that was what Jen would call a Beautiful-Ugly. Even though I wasn't feeling inspired by God, I had begun devos with being upset with the boys, and there was a lot of distraction because some of them were bouncing off the walls, God did a wonderful thing!! He spoke into the hearts of two boys, convicting them and causing them to accept Him and rededicate their lives to Him. What an awesome, gracious God!
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