My precious girls...

So last night I went to detention, like every Wednesday night. It was so great...and so tragic all at the same time.

I had noticed a change in this one girl three weeks ago and finally yesterday got a chance to talk to her. She used to be bubbly, happy, energetic, and wanting to talk to anyone. She's now quiet, isolated, and doesn't smile much. Everyone in her life right now has let her down, lied to her, or in some form or another, disappointed her time and time again.

So I looked at her and told her straight up I wasn't ever going to lie to her. She believed me because some how she saw I was different than they were. As we kept on talking, she told me about her mom, dad, and her home life and I listened. Drugs and alcohol are a huge part of the lives of her family members.

I read Bible stories to her too...some of my favorites and some of the ones she liked. I asked her at one point whether or not she knew where she'd go when she died. She wasn't sure and went on to tell me what she knew about God and Jesus. It was a lot...everything she needed...she prayed a lot, everyday when she was locked up (not much unfortunately when she was on the outs), read the Bible some (but didn't understand it), she knew about Jesus death and how that was what forgave our sins. But yet she was unsure about whether or not she was saved.

So we talked about Ephesians 2:8-10, Romans 6:23 (she liked that verse), Romans 10:9-10, and how its not about what we do or do not do or anything like that because salvation had nothing to do with our opinion or actions, no one consulted us on how we're saved...God decided to do this, God gave us this opportunity as a gift, God did it all and we only need to accept what he's done.

She smiled. I think it was a very satisfied smile. We prayed soon after that and then I had to leave.

It was great. It's always great when someone is assured of their faith. But when I was listening to her tell me all that she knew and believed about God and Jesus, it seemed a bit tragic that when she talked about Jesus death and how that forgave our sins, she didn't make the connection that the sins that separated us from God were taken care of and that she was now saved because of it. For a brief moment, I wondered what that moment in her life was like: was someone telling her this and she believed? ...Why didn't they explain it further and assure her of salvation? Did she read that part of the Bible and find out? ...Why did she stop and not keep going to know more? I was confused and saddened but glad to be there to tell her that that is what saved us and why she IS going to heaven when she died.