HEROES

The soldier slammed his fist down on the table and with a trembling voice and tears in his eyes told the students how he had
grabbed his 45 and headed to the barn. He was going to put a stop to the endless nightmares. He wasn't going to relive that war anymore. He was going to take his life.

God had another plan for this old man. He had someone He wanted this weary soldier to meet.

This meeting changed his life. Jesus gave Bennie a peace he had never experienced before. Sixty-something years after that war ended he can now sleep through the night.

I watched the students' faces as they listened to Bennie tell story after story, hearing how God has changed his life. I watched them gather around him to hear more even after he was done.

We have asked men and women in our church to come and tell our kids how God has changed their hearts. Many have come up to me and told me they would love to share with them. There are so many with amazing stories and my heart wants these students to see that we have heroes of our faith sitting right here among us.

Not only does it give the kids someone to look up to, it makes the heroes more accountable to try to live like they are called to live. It's so easy for us to forget that we are being watched all the time. Maybe if we remembered this we would live a little better. Maybe it would even encourage our kids to go out and be heroes to the little ones in their lives.

A young girl shared something with me last week that happened last summer. She saw some of her heroes doing something that disappointed her. When she told me about it, I couldn't help but cry. Not because of what she had seen, because I already knew about that, but because it made her so sad.

If we all lived like we were being watched, like we were someone's hero, my guess is that we would walk a more godly walk. We would not do anything to make these young ones trip and fall.

Be a hero.