Luke 6:43-45 “A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. ⁴⁴A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. ⁴⁵A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.

⁴⁶“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?

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Do you think you’d get a better report on the Civil War from a modern historian or by spending some time with Abraham Lincoln?  Do you think you could get a better picture of what the Apollo 11 moon landing was like by checking out the NASA website or by sitting down with Neil Armstrong and having him tell you the story about when he took that small step/giant leap?

Obviously, if it were possible to talk to the people who had been a part of events in the past, you’d get some amazing stories about those events.  You could get a feeling for what it was like by talking to the people who were there when it happened.

Did your parents ever tell you about when you were born?  Did your grandparents ever tell you about what it was like to live through the Great Depression or to watch the Apollo Moon Landing on live TV?  Wasn’t it cool to hear those stories from the people who’d seen it happen?

So along those same lines, would it be better to learn about the history of the world from somebody who was never there but had made a guess about what might have happened as the world started or from Someone who was there, Someone who actually built the Earth, Someone who designed the universe as a star spangled backdrop for His favorite creation to enjoy when the sun went down?

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God’s first commandment was to multiply and subdue the earth.

Christ’s last commandment was to go into all the earth and make disciples.

These to commandments go together like chocolate and peanut butter.  What better way to make disciples than to raise your own children to love and obey God, and to teach them to teach their children and their children’s children and everyone they come in contact with?  If Christian parents would model the perfect love of God for their friends AND families, that whole Great Commission thing would be a snap.

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Happy Mother’s Day!

Ok, so this is from awhile ago.  But it was fun.

Any day is a good day to hug your mom.  Why not do it today?

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I’ve had a lot of people tell me that having a child really changes your life.  But it seems to me, when you are eagerly looking forward to having children and  it finally happens, you don’t even notice the change–kinda like jumping out of an airplane–you’re too focused on making sure your parachute works to think about how different life is with in a free fall.  And before you know it…smack your kids are in college and you’re wondering where the time went.

Our little girl is 4 months old today, and she is the most precious and beautiful baby I’ve ever seen.  And sometimes she needs some attention late at night or early in the morning.  She takes a little longer to get ready to go somewhere.  And she especially likes to be held when you need to use your hands for something else.  But the change to life she brings and the extra work she requires is so enjoyable because her life is such a blessing.  It’s like taking the trash can to the curb the night before garbage day and then looking up at the clear sky and getting lost in the stars.

These first 4 months seem to have flashed by, and she’s already grown so much.  It’s pretty awesome to watch.

Of course a baby can keep you occupied enough that you don’t blog at all for months.  But eventually you figure out how to make a little time to get some work done. 🙂

From Frog’s awesome wife:

It was a long time coming…but she’s finally here!  The cutest baby ever was born on Sunday morning , August 8^th.  She was delivered by emergency c-section, as her heart rate kept dropping and she was responding well.  We found out the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck.  She did not start breathing on her own for almost six minutes after birth and was very limp and pale.  She was brought immediately to the NICU, where she was tested for various infections.  Her white blood cell count was very high, so the doctors were guessing she had some sort of infection and started her on antibiotics right away.  Every blood culture they took to determine a specific type of infection came back negative, so they never discovered exactly what kind of infection she had.  Thankfully, her spinal tap results showed that there was no infection signs in her brain.  It was a rough day for all of us as Baby wasn’t feeling well, Mom had to go through surgery, and Dad had to worry about both his girls making it through all the complications.  But it was a great reminder that even through the rough times we can depend on God.

Since the doctors had started a course of antibiotics to fight whatever this infection was, she had to stay in the NICU for 10 days to finish her treatment.  But she was already showing much improvement after the first few days.  She moved out of her isolette into a regular bed, learned to breathe room air and maintain her own temperature, and got her feeding tube removed.  Poor girl went through a lot during her hospital stay, but she was such a trooper.  She is perfectly healthy and happy today!

We praise God for His continued faithfulness to us.  We might have thought our difficulties were over after our 2-year struggle with infertility, but God proved to us once again that He can bring something good out of a seemingly awful situation.  The day she was finally released from the hospital, August 18^th, was one of the best days ever.  How long we had looked forward to the day when we would have a child in our home!  We are so grateful that our precious girl has no lasting issues from her complications at birth.  She is a wonderfully sweet baby and we are as happy and proud as parents can be!

Thank you for your prayers for our family!

It was definitely a rough day when she was born.  I remember that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when the doctor told us that the baby wasn’t responding and would have to be delivered by C-section.  Thankfully the nurse was happy to wait for me to pray for Jenna and the baby before they were prepped for surgery.  I had to put those paper clothes over my outfit, and then they let me be in the room during the procedure.

I always imagined that a C-section was a nice clean cut where the baby just slid nicely out.  But in real life, it’s more like a cannonball wound and the baby still has to be pushed through the opening.  I watched as they pulled the baby’s head through the incision, and unwrapped the cord and clipped it and handed her to the baby team.

The baby team went right to work cleaning her up and using the respirator to breath for her.  She was like a wet noodle and just flopped around and wasn’t crying or moving or anything.  The baby team was professional about it, but it was scary for me to watch my child not respond.  Meanwhile, I also kept an eye on my wife who was bleeding profusely.  The doctors were also diligently working on mom, but it was clear that both mama and baby were having complications.

As mom and baby were both being worked on I had the realization that I could lose them both on the same day.  And that was heart rending.  So I was fervently praying that morning for both my girls.  I told God I would trust him no matter what happened, but I prayed hard for the recovery of both mom and baby.  And praise the Lord, they both came through it well.

It was such a blessing when I finally heard my daughter cry.  And I love to watch her grow and learn new things on a daily basis.  And it’s so good to know my beautiful wife is well and can share her love with me and our budding family.

PS. If you’d like to read some of the back story to just how huge a blessing this baby girll is be sure to check out these two entries:

Praying for a baby

A miracle answer to prayer

I have been noticing, with my first child getting ready to be born in like 6 weeks, that babies seem more real.  Have you ever had your perspective change because of something like that.  I mean I’ve just never really looked at a newborn baby and thought about what it was thinking as he tries to figure out what all these new sensations are and how this body he’s contained in reacts to his feelings.  But now that I can feel my own child move in my wife’s belly and see her grow, I can understand why parents love those wrinkly, noisy, helpless little creatures.  And I think I’m going to get an even better sense of how much God loves us.