Last night my little girl got in trouble. No, not for cutting her hair with scissors (this time!) She didn’t get in trouble for teasing the dog either. Nope, this time she got in hot water for writing her name on the bathroom wall in two separate places and, it that weren’t enough, the toilet seat (?!)
My son, Jeremy (aka “the informant”) ran downstairs and told me what she had done and I ran upstairs to see it for myself. He was right and she was wrong.
When I grilled Kailey as to why she did this act of toddler tagging (micro vandalism!) she kept saying, “I don’t want people to forget me! I don’t want people to forget my name!”
Don’t worry Kailey, we won’t.
Already, at the ripe age of six, she wanted to leave her mark on the world…with a not-so-magic marker.
How did I respond? Suffice it to say that I don’t think she will do it again But, then again, I could be very, very wrong.
How could I have responded? Brad Keirnes, one of the board members of Dare 2 Share (the ministry I work for), responded on my Facebook page an alternative approach. He wrote, “My Aunt’s granddaughter drew on her hallway wall with permanent markers when she was a toddler. Rather than scold her, my Aunt framed the ‘masterpiece’ with a wooden picture frame 2 feet off the floor. It is still there today, 20+ years later…”
Okay, I feel guilty now. Instead of getting punished this other, little girl got her scribbles framed.
I must be a bad dad. But I serve a good one and so do you.
God takes our scribbles and frames them. He lets us leave our mark on the world both now and forever. How? By “scribbling” the gospel onto the souls of those we are in proximity with every single day!
The Apostle Paul reminds us of this in 2 Corinthians 3:2,3, “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
When we share the gospel we are etching and sketching the Name of Christ into the souls of our classmates, co-workers, family and friends. For us, leaving our mark on this world, means sharing His message to this world.
Want people to remember your name for time and eternity? It takes more than a Sharpie. It takes you sharing the best news of all time with them. It takes getting the Name of Jesus imprinted with permanent ink on their lost souls. For all of eternity they will never forget your act of holy tagging…and neither will Jesus.
Frame that.
