serving out of desire

Yesterday both of my girls had a "part" in the chapel service. Sarah, our oldest was responsible for the raising of the Christian flag. I have to admit, I really enjoy the idea of raising the flag and recognizing that all things are a privilege from God. My picture quality is not as good as the camera will do, sorry. But, just incase you didn't know, Sarah is the girl with the black shirt on. Then, we went on to the chapel service and Sami's 2nd grade class was directing and leading the elementary school in the worship service. It is hard as a parent to not just be proud of your children. They are memorizing Scripture and then leading others in worship through the Word and I get welled up each and every time. (Sami is in the purple shirt)
I just finished the book, Prodigal God by Tim Keller and I think my take home (even though there was lots to chew on) is this: so often we obey to be accepted by God therefore thinking we deserve certain end results in our service; whereas, we are accepted by God therefore we desire to serve Him fully, no matter what the cost is or isn't. It doesn't matter because my eyes are on Him.

I see this in our service here in Jos and my heart is to be proud of my children as they are learning to serve God, but I want to always be aware of their heart and their desire to serve Jesus. "Acts" can quickly go from pure heart to no heart and just motives to certain end results. Anyway, I am glad both of my girls were participants in a "bigger" picture worship/chapel service and my prayer is that I will be able to nurture their hearts to a desire to do all things for Christ.