On April 16th we found out we are having a baby girl. I couldn't be more excited and terrified all at once. I was expecting a boy, and I feel like I would know better how to handle a boy, which is probably why my mind thought boy. I am thrilled that it is a girl, I just think I will knowingly be taken advantage of for the duration of my life. I'm coming to grips with this now. I guess my job is to show my girl how she deserves to be treated by the way I treat her mama, and to do my very best to give God all the glory He deserves in our household. I pray now that I will faithfully be able to do those two things.
Emily and I took a trip to Puerto Vallarta a week and a half ago and it was wonderful. We sat on the beach almost every day and read our books, ate good food, and laughed a ton. We tested out our new camera, took walks on the beach, slept late, and just had a fantastic time. Emily and I are good travel partners, and we have yet to have an argument on a trip. I read Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis for the first time. This book was amazing. I'm amazed by how many of the pastors I love got their ideas from Lewis. I could probably write a short book about how much I loved this book. I need to read it again so as to absorb more permanently. I'm going to try to attack Weight of Glory on the trip to the Dominican Republic in a couple of weeks.
The last month or 2 have been mentally exhausting for me. Everything from the emotions associated with having a pregnant wife, finding out the baby's gender, working really hard to stay on top of work stuff before and after a trip...all of this stuff has just taken a toll on me. None of it is bad stuff really, it has just exhausted me a bit. It weighed on me to the point of a bad mood and random tears early this week. Tuesday nights are a very special time though with some of my close friends, a matt chandler sermon, and good dialog. This tuesday brought me out of my funk. I had missed 2 in a row and I think I could feel the weight of that, its really odd. We listened to the 2nd sermon in Chandler's Colossians series.
Colossians 1:9-12 says
"For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light."
This text is great to me. I love to consider what walking in a manner worthy of the Lord looks like. I also love that in a time where I felt beat down this text gave me strength and joy just as it described and it gave me a reason to look at tough times joyously. Right now, my joy comes from coming home, putting my hand on emily's belly, and feeling our baby girl move. This stirs my affections for the Lord, and for my wife. This joy, that God has gifted me with, allows me to try to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord even if we come to a time in life where things are rocky.
- Austin
No comments:
Post a Comment