Dangerously Unsafe

Our night-time routine rarely changes.  My kids are a product of consistency and they love it, which is good most of the time.  So with Chaz, we do our I'm-not-kidding-you-9-different handshakes and then I scratch his back.  (Who doesn't love a good back scratch?)  And then we pray together, alternating turns; one night I (or Daniel) pray and the next night he prays.  My prayer usually ends like this:
"Please fill this house with Your presence and stay with us all night long.  Amen."  But either because of this, or the instinct of self-preservation or a million other reasons, one night this week Chaz ended his prayer with "...and God please keep me safe all my life. Amen."  And I paused...was this the right time to really discuss this?  I mean, he was praying a sincere and sweet prayer, but I decided there was something I needed him to know.

So I said, "Chaz, I want you to know something very, very important."  And he looked at me with old-soul eyes and knew I was serious.  (He may have thought he was in trouble and was just racking his brain trying to remember what he'd done to warrant such a serious expression on my face.  lol)  "I don't want you to live a safe life, Chaz," I softly told him.  At the puzzled look he gave me, I explained, "I want you to go on adventures.  I want you to do crazy things for God!  I want you to do things that other people aren't willing to do, go places other people aren't willing to go, and love people that other people won't.  I want God to protect you, yes, because I love you...but I also want you to be dangerous for God...because you love Him."

And he smiled real big and told me some of the things he wants to do when he grows up; he wants to be a missionary in Africa who is also a teacher and in the summer he will give free Art classes.  "Momma it's just beautiful there!" he finishes.  The country he's never stepped foot in, and the people's pictures he's seen on the pamphlets for clean water...and he says it's beautiful there.  And I'm proud.*  Sure, he may have to mow the lawn tomorrow morning as discipline for disobeying for the 3rd time for something pretty serious...and I can't get him to pick up every single lego for the life of him....but I think he gets it.  He gets the real important stuff anyway.  (*Even if he never becomes a missionary in Africa!)

And it makes me think...am I living my life too safe?
I'm not belittling the amazing things God's called us to do; and I'm not demeaning the importance of obedience in the small things.  (Those small things only look small because of your point of view.) I just want to make sure that I'm not holding on to my life too tightly, that I guard it...even against God.   I just want to evaluate every now and then and make sure that I'm being dangerously obedient.  That I look like an idiot to the world because of how I follow Christ.   Or am I nice and comfortable in my home, with my "stuff" and with my thoughts...never causing people to question my sanity and why I make the choices I do??  Never pausing myself, to question my spiritual growth and why I make the choices I do?

I've said this before on my blog, and I love the Elliots (so full of godly wisdom that couple was!) but this quote is so powerful I never get used to thinking about it:
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." ~Jim Elliot

And Luke 17:33 says,

If you try to hold on to your life, it will slip through your fingers; if you let go of your life, you’ll keep it.

So, Christ-following Moms (and dads!)...will you join me in praying for our children to be dangerous?  Will you pray for your lives and the lives of your children to be unsafe for the Kingdom?