He Doesn't Know It Yet . . . But This is Changing Him

This was a picture Matt, his dad, my son-in-law, sent in our family chat recently.

No explanation.

No commentary.

Just a moment captured.

My grandson, Christopher, leaned over the pages, elbows resting on the table, his eyes fixed, quietly moving from line to line.

The world around him kept going, the hum of the house, the sounds from the kitchen, but for a moment, he wasn’t part of any of it.

Just a boy … and the Word of God.

A second grader … reading Scripture.

I looked at that picture, and something in me paused.

Because I know what’s happening even if he doesn’t fully realize it yet.

Here’s what I know as I watch Him grow: reading God’s Word doesn’t make him perfect.

He still gets frustrated.

He still makes wrong choices.

He still has moments where he needs correction.

There are times he reacts instead of responds.

Moments where he says something he shouldn’t.

Times where he has to be reminded again.

But something is changing.

Not all at once.

Not loudly.

Not in a way the world would always notice.

But quietly… deeply… steadily.

Because when the Word begins to take root, it doesn’t just inform, it brings things to light.

It starts to shape how he sees things.

How he feels things.

How he responds after he’s done something wrong.

And the truth is this…

He may still do what’s wrong, but he’s learning quicker that it’s wrong.

He’s learning to pause, to feel that tension in his heart, and to recognize it.

And more than that, he’s learning to make it right.

To say, “I’m sorry.”

To turn back.

To bring it before God and before others.

Not because someone forced him to, but because something inside him is beginning to lead him there.

Psalm 119:11 tells us: “I have hidden your word in my heart

that I might not sin against you.”

Not that we won’t stumble but that we won’t stay there.

And as I looked at that picture,

a simple moment sent in a family text,

I realized something that wasn’t just about him.

It was a reminder for me.

Because I do spend time in God’s Word, and yet I can never stop meeting Him there.

Not once.

Not occasionally.

Not just when life feels off.

Daily.

Continually.

Dependently.

Because I still struggle with sin.

We all do.

And no amount of experience, knowledge, or time changes that truth.

It is only His Word, and His Spirit…

that reveal what is wrong in me,

that soften my heart,

that lead me to repentance,

and give me the strength to turn and make it right.

And maybe that’s what I’m really seeing in him…

Not perfection.

But the beginning of a pattern.

A life that learns to return to God again and again and again.

Because growth isn’t about getting everything right.

It’s about learning to return to Him faster.

To recognize it sooner.

To respond differently.

To surrender more quickly.

And it starts the same way it did for him…

In the quiet.

At the table.

With the Word open.

Your story is being written in moments just like this.

Not in perfection, but in surrender.

And sometimes the most powerful chapters begin when no one else is watching.