Questions

Matt and I try to be very intentional with making opportunities for gospel conversations around our home. When we discipline, we make sure to end by telling our children that they are sinners who do wrong because of sin in their hearts. We pray together that Jesus would help them to see their need for a Savior and that they would respond in faith in Him.  When we celebrate holidays like Christmas and Easter, we try to do everything possible to use them to point our kids to Jesus.  When we give them gifts, we try to include items that will cause gospel conversations.
For Christmas, Matt gave Avery a book called The Lightlings by R.C. Sproul.  It's the story of a King who creates a fairy-people called the Lightlings, but they rebel from the King and choose to live in the darkness, so their light goes out and they run away from the King to live in the dark woods.  When a baby is born who is the Light, many return and believe that the King can bring them to the light again, and He does.  Through reading this book, Corrie has begun asking lots of questions and is understanding the concepts presented in the book.  She knows the King is God and we are like the Lightlings - we were in the light until Adam and Eve rebelled, and since then everyone naturally chooses to live in the dark.  She knows that she, Avery, and Hudson are still in the dark because God has not yet called them into the light.  And through these conversations, Matt and I were able to tell her our testimony of how God called us out of darkness and into light.
We led up to Easter by talking through Resurrection Eggs we made - plastic eggs filled with a symbol of Easter.  They start with a piece of bread and we talk about the Last Supper.  Then coins for Judas' betrayal, thorns from a rosebush for a crown of thorns, etc.  We hide the eggs in the house and after they find them, we read Scripture to show how that object played a part in Jesus' death and resurrection.
One morning as we talked about the nails that held Jesus on the cross and the sign that read, "King of the Jews" above His head, Corrie started a conversation that went something like this:
Corrie (teary-eyed): Mommy, this is a sad story.
Mommy:  I know, but it's also a good story because Jesus wanted to obey God to take away our sin so that we could live in the light with God instead of having to stay in the dark, even if that meant hurting and dying on the cross.
Corrie:  Do you know anybody who lives in the dark?
Mommy:  Well, you know we talked about how you, Avery, and Hudson still live in the dark but we pray God would call you into the light.
Corrie:  I know, but do you know anyone else?
Mommy:  Yes. [And then I mentioned a friend I know who is not a believer].  She doesn't want to live in the light and love and obey God.
Corrie:  So she will have to die for her own sin? [WHAT!!! How huge of a concept for a 5 year old to put together!]
Mommy:  Yes.  Unless she chooses to love and obey God [my explanation to her right now of "belief"], she will have to die for her own sin. Not on a cross like Jesus did, but when she dies she won't be able to live again with God in heaven.  She'll go to a place called hell, which is not a place we want to be because God isn't there.

She didn't say much else after that but I know she is processing and God is working the gospel in her heart.  I'm so thankful for the conversations and questions that Corrie is asking!  Please pray with me that the gospel would be clearly communicated to her and that God would call her out of her sin and darkness and into His marvelous light!

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord!" -Romans 3:23; 6:23