Assurance

Since we first found out we were pregnant with both boys, Mike and I started praying for their salvation. We pray that they'll get saved as soon as they're old enough to understand and also that they'll always love God and be close to Him. Those are the two most important things to us. However, having grown up in a good Christian home (which is what we are striving to provide for our kids) myself, I also added on the prayer that they'll always be sure of their salvation. That is something that I struggled with until college, and I've found that many kids who have gotten saved at an early age struggle with that. I know how hard it is, and I really don't want that for my boys.
In case you didn't grow up in a Christian home and don't understand what I'm talking about, I'll share my own testimony. We moved to Singapore when I was four, and our family was involved in many outreach ministries. I heard the plan of salvation so much, I knew it by heart. When I was four, I was at a special children's outing at Pasir Ris park, and at the end of the day, one of the men taught a little lesson and then told everyone to bow their heads and close their eyes. He said if you'd never prayed the sinner's prayer before, you should repeat after him. I never had so I repeated after him. I promptly forgot about it for the next week or so.
As we were driving somewhere, I happened to think of it and told my mom I had gotten saved. When we got home, she took me into the bedroom and asked me a bunch of questions. I apparently answered them correctly 'cause she told Dad I knew what I was talking about.
I'm not sure how much later, but probably around a year later, an evangelist from America came to preach a revival. One night he preached about @#!*% , and I sat in my seat and cried because I knew that's where I was going. Everyone thought I was crying because my mom was in the nursery and I normally wouldn't leave her side. But when we got home I whispered to my mom that I didn't think I was saved. She sat down with me at the dining room table and read some verses to me, then she told me to pray and tell God that I wasn't sure if I was saved or not, but I believed that Jesus had died for me and I was a sinner, and I wanted to be saved. Now I truly know that is when I got saved.
But for years I would struggle with whether or not I really did get saved. Maybe I hadn't had enough faith or maybe I hadn't said exactly the right words. I'd get it settled and then a few months later, it would come right back.
When I was home on break from college one summer, I went with my parents' to their church in Virginia. The pastor wasn't even preaching on assurance, but he was preaching from Matthew 14 and as he read verses 30-31, I suddenly got it. It's talking about Peter walking on the water to Jesus and says, "But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" I italicized "immediately" 'cause that's what struck me. Peter didn't have to say the right words or even have a whole bunch of faith; all he said was "save me" and immediately Jesus saved him.
I realized that God wants desperately to save us. He hasn't made it complicated that you have to do exactly the right thing in order to get saved; He's made it easy enough for a child.
I pray that Gehrig and Logan will realize this, and when they get saved, they'll know they're saved and they're saved by a God who loves them enough to reach down and save them the second they ask.