My heart is so full. Knowing the preparation that goes behind the thousands of children who participated in scores of events prior to and at the Lads convention, I’m overcome with gratitude for what parents and grandparents are contributing right now to the church in the latter half of the 21st century. Unless the trumpet blows beforehand, some of the kids who were shining this weekend will still be working and shining for him as the wise and elderly in the body, even as the calendar page is turned to the 22nd century. Faith works…and the faith that worked for the events of this last weekend will still be working for generations. My heart is full for the legacy so many are working to leave.
I will be gone to the brighter side in a few years. But I am praying those living room speech practices, the big allotments of time we spent in reviewing and repeating Bible bowl answers with four of our grandkids, the way Colleyanna achieved getting the rhythm and beat of 4:4 song leading, the verse that resonated in our hearts over and over as Eliza rehearsed it: “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded!” (James 4:8)—-I am praying that these little things will grow like the mustard seed, into glory from their lives to their Lord. I am praying that the 100 verses memorized by five of my children this year will grow into bigger and bigger faith, because I trust him when he said “Faith comes by hearing the word of God” (Romans 10:17)
(l-r) Colleyanna, Lily, Ezra, Ellis, Maggie and Eliza Jane
I trust him! Ellis’s speech was about his favorite thing…nutcrackers. He explained how some nutcrackers are fake. They cannot “really quack de nuts.” He said it’s the same way with Christians. Some are fake and some are real. Then he said that he wants to be like Daniel, who was the real thing. He wanted to follow God even when it was hard. How I am trusting God, that as their parents pour time and the Word into the children, who are my six grandchildren, that the product will be a faith that works! My deepest desire in this life is to be with all of them in the next.
At the Nashville convention alone this year there were 10,000 participants! Ten-thousand PARTICIPANTS, excluding the non-participating people who were attendees. Although, I cannot bear to think about one of these 10,000 being lost, I know the devil is both busy and crafty. He desperately wants to break the chain of faith in your family. But the way that he responds to our drawing near to God is by fleeing. Did you get that? As Eliza’s verse says, the devil flees when we draw near to God! When you pull your children into the Word, you put the devil on the run. How can we be sparse in our time in the Word while we generously give it to soccer, baseball, school work and entertainment? When we draw near to the things of this world while excluding the eternal things, the devil loves it. He doesn’t have to flee. He just presents himself and entices our children through the unimportant things we love. He presents secularism in the schoolwork. He presents worldliness in the entertainment and he presents misplaced priorities in the sports…IF we are doing these things to the exclusion of getting our kids in the Word!
So gratitude from a deep place in our hearts today for the army of parents and grandparents, mentors and ministers who spent massive amounts of time preparing kids for the spiritual stuff that makes life worth living and draws them near to God. They can’t all yet understand the power that is working in them, but they will know, one day soon, that it is the power of an unyielding faith that will lead them over Jordan and safely to the throne. I’ll be waiting with expectation for them!
Ezra and our brother, Roy Johnson
I’m pretty sure I heard 30-plus speeches this weekend about Joseph and how his brothers meant the pit, the slavery and the bloody coat, for evil, but God meant it all for good. I heard a lot about Job and even more about the intended and massive eternal good that God meant through the abuse that happened at the cross. 
the things that occur in my life. Events, occurrences, schedules and mishaps are not all about me; but of course they ARE all about Him IN me and in you and in every faithful child. How can He take every single one of His called children this weekend across multiple convention sites and make the paths of our lives converge into one good thing? It’s because we are called according to His purpose and we claim that promise from an infinitely resourceful God. As one of my grandchildren said in her speech, “Like I said, I can’t even imagine it. But it’s no wonder I can’t even imagine it. God said He can do exceedingly, abundantly more than I can even ask or imagine.”
It strikes me on reflection that we are blessed in His family with so many intersections at a big event like Lads to Leaders. This (Nashville convention, this year) was the biggest convention in the history of Lads and it was full of wonderful cross-over reunions for most of us.
Keepers award and a couple of them achieved the Good Samaritan Award. 
Lads is an intersection of the sixties-something me and the six-year-old me. People I’ve known from the Adamsville church for all my life walked up and said “I’m ____________.” Then there were big embraces and fond memories just came pouring back. I’m so thankful for a childhood among His faithful people.
Lads is an intersection of Christian camps. Teen girls, over and over, shouted “Mrs. Cindy!” We took pictures and we said lots of “Are you coming this summer?” And there were lots of “OHHH yes! I can’t wait.”s. I’m thankful for youth events that bind them (and us) together.
can imagine!
I feel down in front of 1000 or so people in the front of an auditorium.
disappointed. But he worked it all out. We are not sure he is a faithful Easter bunny because he finished up his work while we were worshipping. However, to give him the benefit of the doubt, it did take us a LOOONG time to get back to the room after worship and all the eggs from the bunny were hidden when we got back.
Lads to Leaders. There is nothing like it. It’s a convention with just shy of ten thousand people that runs like a well-oiled machine. 99-plus percent of the people who run the convention are volunteers and the hotel staff sometimes complains that we are the group which never runs up bar tabs or watches the pay-for-view movies they provide in the rooms. But they still love us. We are relatively quiet, very clean and respectful.
She was directly in the lens of her horrified mom’s camera. Photography was suddenly unimportant and getting that baby off the stage was happening fast. I’m pretty sure the photo that Leah Wright caught of Eliza’s attempted moment of glory will be included in her senior slide-show in 2038.
are, with two thousand people behind them.