Thoughts for my sons

Dear Madigan and Declan,

I love you both so much. The past year with you, Madigan, has filled my heart with so much joy at the opportunity to be your dad. The time has flown by so fast. Declan, I can't wait to meet you face to face. You both have retaught me that each life is so very precious and that life happens very fast, especially when you are not looking. In my next few blog posts, I hope to share with you lessons that God has taught me through His Word and illustrated in my life. They may not be the big things that stand out in Scripture (e.g. Creation, Fall, Redemption in Christ, and the hope of Glory), but I hope they will encourage you to walk faithfully with our Lord in your own way as God illuminates the meaning of His Word in your life. I have been thinking about writing these things to you for sometime, since I am forgetful and have no guarantee of the opportunity to teach them to you at an age when you will understand.

The first passage that has meant a great deal to me is Proverbs 27:10:

Do not forsake your friend and your father’s friend, and do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away.

This passage is very true! I come from a very geographically spread out family. My uncles, aunts, and cousins live on at least three continents at the time of writing this. They are serving the Lord faithfully, which is very great blessing, but it does make family a challenge to keep up with even though they are very loved. I suspect that your own uncles, aunts, and cousins will live a great distance from us as you grow older, but for now we are very blessed to have Aunt Virginia and Aunt Lisa living with us. Keeping up with family is part of life, but it is very important that you make friends with your neighbors, wherever you live. I don't know what our culture will be like in the future, but, right now, turning neighbors into friends is hard work because society encourage to live such separate lives. Your mom and I are trying to overcome this challenge by hosting High Tea, which I hope you'll be able to remember.

The value of friendship has always been challenging to me, since we moved a lot growing up so there was very little opportunity to develop friendships that lasted. Shortly after your mom and I married we moved to Austin, TX and found some of the best friends of our lives through our small group. Those friendships were not easy to form because being honest about life with others can be painful and scary, but we've never make a better investment of time and energy in our lives. The rewards of these friendships are hard to communicate, so maybe we'll just have to show you the photo galleries of our times together. Those friends were very painful to leave, but worth every tear and more.

This verse is also the biggest reason that both of you were born in Nashville. When your grandmother, Mama Lynn, died, it taught me that I could not effectively help family from a distance, so I found a job that God provided near home. He made it clear that I could help family and serve Him effectively in the calling He has given me. Sometimes you have to choose God over family to remain faithful, but sometimes He provides a way to do both, if we are paying attention. While in Nashville with family, we didn't stop pursuing friendships. We found them because we knew we needed them and looked for them. And, God has provided them and we are learning new things for they are very different kinds of friends from the ones we had before.

There are other passages in Scripture that teach us to serve God where we are first and then serve Him elsewhere as He provides the opportunity. I'll just mention two briefly, but you'll have to look them up, Acts 1:8 and 1 Corinthians 7:24. There is a popular slogan at the time I post this blog, "Think globally, act locally", but faithful Christians have always known and done this throughout history. Just remember the example of the family you come from.

Love,

Dad

P.S. When you are in your early teens, you need to read a chapter from Proverbs every day each month for at least a year (e.g. Prov 15 on the 15th). Proverbs 1 explains why, so go read it first!