January 20
When we pray “Our Father,” we are communing with our loving, sovereign creator, who holds us near his heart. Our Father’s sovereign love means he is acting in wondrous and mysterious ways in history “to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him” (Ephesians 1:10). (Gray, Derwin, “God, Do You Hear Me?” pg 44)
Happy Thursday friends! I have a lot to share with y’all to get you caught up in the next three days. I, unexpectedly, found myself exhausted after the long weekend and slept my days away in between working shifts. And yesterday was a busy off day balancing increasing needs from my other part-time job and investing time with my family. Can I take a moment and tell you how blessed I am? God blessed me beyond belief nearly sixteen years ago when He brought Mrs. Z and I together, and from that beautiful partnership came our amazing kiddos. This past weekend we invested into those two, and, as it always does, we got to see their joy and laughter lighten up our weary, tired souls.
I love my kids. As frustrating as they can be at times, they are the reason I exist. While we are still young in our parenting (our oldest turns eleven this year), we have learned so much from these two and if they both end up being productive, world-changing adults, like we are gently steering them to, you can be sure Mrs. Z and I will be sharing more of our parenting advice with the world. But for now, it is still too early to tell how their story will develop. The most challenging years are quickly approaching.
I will say, while it should be common sense, you have to play with your kids. No matter how old they are, get down on their level and play with them. My five-year-old son and his three-year-old cousin were wanting me to play with them on Saturday when we were visiting family and I simply did some yard work under three massive pecan trees, and it ended up being a beautiful work of art. Pecan trees drop a ridiculous amount of leaves in the fall and winter and the ground was covered with a carpet of crunchy fun. So much so that I was able to build a leaf pile that was taller than my son’s head. Those two boys had so much fun in those leaves, from burying themselves to burying their “walkie-talkies,” we spent hours underneath those pecan trees. We spent an afternoon in the beauty and wonder provided by God alone. The boys were worn out, I was content, the leaves were raked in an easy pile to burn later, and a small swarm of beautiful song birds snacked on all the bugs we exposed in our raking. It was a victorious day.
As Dr. Derwin Gray has shown in the last two chapters (today’s selection above comes at the end of Chapter Three), God is a loving, sovereign Father. He loves all His children with a love we could never accurately comprehend. If you are a parent, I would hope you love your children with the same type of inexplainable, incomparable love, and I hope you invest your free time into your children.
As precious as our “free” time is, this week we will be pushing through Chapters 3, 4, and 5 of “God, Do You Hear Me?“. Tomorrow I will recap Chapter 4, as Dr. Gray continues to explain exactly who our Heavenly Father is.
Sharing some new music today from one of the powerful voices of Hillsong Worship. Mrs. Brooke Ligertwood is preparing to release a new solo project, and after reading her preview of the album, I am very excited for this work. This first single is a true indication of how great this collection will be, click below to hear it yourself.
Common Sense Reborn 