Baby #2: Joy, Blessing, and Ministry

Today God extended His grace to us with blessing us with another child. Alayna May Moser was born at 10:03 a.m. and weighed in at 8 lbs. 3 oz. The delivery/labor time was a whole 3 hrs. and 3 minute! Quick, fast, and painful at times, but the Lord blessed the whole situation. Shannon is doing well, laughing, and looking great. The pic is from about 10 minutes after birth and Alyna yawned so I thought I better take a photo. Initial reports are that she is a little squeaker(literally) when she sleeps.

The following was taken from John Piper's sermon: Marriage is meant for making Children and as I read it today it reminded me of the calling that Shannon and I have as husband and wife and father and mother. It reminded me that marriage and being parents are in and of themselves minstries that God has entrusted to us. May we honor him with our response.

"The most fundamental task of a mother and father is to show God to the children. Children know their parents before they know God. This is a huge responsibility and should cause every parent to be desperate for God-like transformation. The children will have years of exposure to what the universe is like before they know there is a universe. They will experience the kind of authority there is in the universe and the kind of justice there is in the universe and the kind of love there is in the universe before they meet the God of authority and justice and love who created and rules the universe. Children are absorbing from dad his strength and leadership and protection and justice and love; and they are absorbing from mother her care and nurture and warmth and intimacy and justice and love—and, of course, all these overlap.

And all this is happening before the child knows anything about God, but it is profoundly all about God. Will the child be able to recognize God for who he really is in his authority and love and justice because mom and dad have together shown the child what God is like. The chief task of parenting is to know God for who he is in many attributes and then to live in such a way with our children that we help them see and know God. And, of course, that will involve directing them always to the infallible portrait of God in the Bible.

Finally, God has ordained that both mother and father be involved in raising the children because they are husband and wife before they are mother and father. And what they are as husband and wife is where God wants children to be: As husband and wife, they are a drama of the covenant-keeping love between Christ and the church. That is where God wants children to be. His design is that children grow up watching Christ love the church and watching the church delight in following Christ. His design is that the beauty and strength and wisdom of this covenant relationship be absorbed by the children from the time they are born."

That time from when Alayna was born starts today. Please pray for us as we draw our strength and direction from the Lord in our days ahead as parenting has moved from one to now two.