Kristen and Josh

If you can stand any more great news, my sweet absolutely brilliant and beautiful cousin Kristen and her fabulous husband Josh are having a baby! And not only that, but one month after ours! I'm so thrilled for both selfish and non-selfish reasons. Selfishly, I'm so glad our little one will have yet another playmate so close in age and that Kristen and I can go through this pregnancy journey together. Non-selfishly, they will really make wonderful parents for this child. Although I don't know Josh's parents that well, Kristen could not have had better parents growing up. My Uncle Tony and Aunt Laura were so loving and generous. I hope this little one takes after them and not Josh ;) KIDDING!

Sometimes it seems like nine months is so long to be pregnant and other times I feel like there is not enough time to learn everything I need to know. I've got all kinds of books about being a mom and then I realized I'm starting with the wrong books. So lately, I've been thinking about places in scripture where children are mentioned and several stand out in my mind. The first is Mark 10: 13-16

"And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them."

Clearly the Lord values children. He even goes as far as to say that we must all come as children to enter into Heaven. What does that mean? Well to answer that, I first think of what the character traits are of children which differentiate them from adults. Things like trusting, honest, innocent, willing, to name just a few. As adults we become so side tracked and we pollute our minds so much with junk from the world. An example of this is the book Oprah is encouraging people to read, "The New Earth". This has been on my mind a lot lately as I have challenged myself to read the book before giving my opinion. Please be cautious if you decide to read the book. I started reading it and was so blessed by the descriptions of the birds and flowers and finding peace in your life. Then I stumbled upon a section asking the question, is there absolute truth. The book goes on to say that when Christ said "I AM the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me" that He actually meant, I AM is the spirit inside of each of us. I tremble even typing this, for this is the OPPOSITE of the teachings of Christ. I AM speaks directly to the divinity of Christ, the sovereignty of God the Father and to slander His teachings in such a ways is very dangerous. This is an example of how we as adults attempt to win our way into Heaven. If we just find the spiritual side of ourselves, we will be ok. We can all create our own truth and everyone goes to heaven. That is the path to destruction. If only, we could look upon the Lord from the eyes of a child and see the beauty, love, purity and faithfulness that embodies Christ. How could we help but to fall down and worship Him.

Sorry for the tangent, I just feel so deeply that as I attempt to bring a child into this world, I want to see myself and this child the way God sees us. He has blessed us with this gift and I want to, in turn, be obedient to Him and show Him, through my life and my heart's cry for Him that He is sovereign in my life.

In addition to the verses above, here are so many other verses, especially in Proverbs that instruct children to obey their parents and verses directed to parents like the one which says "Instruct a child in the way he should go, and when he is grown he will not depart from it." paraphrased. Children are such a special gift from God. A scary and yet exciting gift.

Kristen and Josh, Congrats again! This is the beginning of a long journey with many ups and downs, lots of ditches to fall in and stones to trip over, there may be rain or snow storms blinding the path and sometimes it may seem like it will never end, but guess what there is a beautiful rainbow at the end of the journey and a beautiful child will grow up feeling loved, challenged and cherished. There is nothing anyone could wish for more than that. I love you guys so much.