Have you ever heard the song by Mark Schultz called, Can You Hear Me? It is an absolute tear jerker! It’s about a parents plea with the Lord to heal their child who is battling cancer. The parent cries out for healing night after night. Every time this song came on the radio it broke my heart and I would just weep, imagining how painful that must be for a parent to walk that road with a child of any age. One day while out in the car alone, running an errand, the song came on and the Lord impressed something deep into my heart that was profound.

You see at the time I was pregnant with our third child and recently found out that we were having another boy. I had been trying to grasp the blessings and challenges of what it means to raise now two boys and my hearts desire to raise them to be bold, courageous and godly leaders in this world that seems lacking of men like that. As I began listening to this song for the 100th time, I began to weep again for the broken heart of a parent who sees their child suffering and at that moment I began to ponder the healing of a child and the salvation of a child’s soul. It was as if the Lord was speaking to my heart saying, Jolee, do you value the healing of a child as much or more than you do the salvation of a child? Yes, it is good and right to pray and weep and ask the Lord for physical healing. But will you weep for their salvation, that they might know me and treasure me as more valuable and important than any physical healing of the body. Is not their soul and the condition of their heart of more concern than the condition of the body itself? I cannot begin to tell you how that moment left an impression on my heart that I will never forget. I want to be a parent who of course cares and is concerned with health issues my children face. But I now have a deeper longing for their salvation and want to be a parent that can cry out and weep for my child to more importantly, know and recognize their great need for a Savior! Their salvation seems weightier now to me than ever before.

May your names, Greta Joy, Caleb and Joshua be written in the Book of Life, forevermore.