She will laugh at the days to come

I write this entry as the wife of Paul Scheperle and the mother of Gabriel, Benjamin and Elizabeth Scheperle. Paul asked me to speak for Mother's Day this year at which time I was feeling a sense of grief because it was becoming reality for me that we have two very strong willed children. It made it very difficult to speak to our church family. The largest sense of grief was the seriousness that Gabriel might one day not submit his will to his Heavenly Father because we were having such a difficult time having him submit to our will. For a parent, that is devastating. But God is faithful. There have been so many days of tears of grief and then every so often when the Lord must know I need to be encouraged there are moments of pure joy. I hold desperately to those brief moments.

One such moment was Wednesday in our truck on the way to the airport. Paul and I were leaving town together for a few days without our children. Somehow the discussion, as it is constant with two five year olds, got around to airplanes crashing. I told Gabe that we really do not want to think about them crashing. He reassured me that it would be okay because he would "just" put on his airplane suit and jump out before it crashed. I told him that I did not have an airplane suit. He told me to "just" go to the store and buy one. I told him that we just need to pray that the Lord keeps us safe. That seemed to have settled the matter because Gabe became silent and Lib started to reiterate everything Gabe just told me in her two and a half year old way. Then I heard Gabe say, "Dear God, Please get mom and dad safe to California. (pause) And please don't let the plane crash. (pause) (and then quite confidently and extremely matter-of-fact) Amen." I couldn't believe it! I did not intend for us to stop and pray together as a family at the point that I had said, "we just need to pray...". But Gabe did! On his own. And so full of faith that was made evident in his "Amen".

God has such a sense of humor. For some reason, when Gabe prayed, the first thing I thought of was what I was feeling during my sermon preparation for Mother's Day and the verse in Proverbs that ends "she will laugh at the days to come." I had been crying so much for my son that I wanted so much to feel like I could be able to "laugh at the days to come". I could laugh because Paul and I are training our children in the way they should go and God gives us something so precious like this conversation to let us know he will accomplish the rest.