Common Sense Reborn

⁴I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth (3 John 1:4)

Good morning fam. Today will be a sappy post. Today is the day after our oldest child became a teenager. Thirteen years ago, I was sitting in a hospital room, holding our first born, swaddled in her newborn blanket, and beginning to realize for the first time what unconditional love really was. SGZ1, as I call her here, completely changed my life. She is a true gift from God. Thanks to her, and my devotion to be right next to her every second of her early life, I was able to read the entire Holy Bible, cover-to-cover, as I spoke each word to her as an infant. That experience is what eventually led to the launch of this platform. My love for her helped me see the truth that God has that same love for me. God still sees a beautiful creation designed by a beautiful, loving Creator, despite all my faults and my sins. SGZ1, and her brother and little sister, are the motivations for me to have the kind of relationship with Jesus that, hopefully, leads me into eternity within the presence of our Heavenly Father. Raising my three children to walk with Jesus is my number one goal in life, so we may all spend eternity together, because, thanks to God’s grace and divine inspiration from the gifts of being a parent, eternity is not even long enough a time for me to spend with my children.

Mrs. Z and I wrapped up our days-long celebration of our first baby turning into a teenager last night with a headache-inducing, teen-screaming, ice-cream/cake party with our daughter and her three closest friends. This celebration began with a trip to Atlanta for Mrs. Z to take SGZ1 to see her favorite musical artist, Olivia Rodrigo. We had found a reasonable Air BnB in the heart of downtown ATL, just blocks from everything we could ever want. After the concert on Tuesday night, we spent Wednesday exploring Atlanta’s beautiful Centennial Olympic Park, a great conversation starter to our kids about the Olympics, which reportedly began with epic fashion last night, and also to remind our kids of the horrors of humanity as we stumbled upon the monument for the security guard killed during Eric Rudolph’s bombing at the park.

On Wednesday night, we took advantage of the Georgia Aquarium’s highly discounted “After 5PM” park tickets and enjoyed the world’s largest indoor aquarium. Georgian Aquarium has some amazing attractions, and my favorite was definitely the Beluga whales, thanks to a curious Beluga who was intrigued with a group of kids standing at the viewing glass. As you can see in the image below, this Beluga gave all around the opportunity to enjoy the glory of one of God’s creations as it spun effortlessly in the water, flipped upside down, and gazed with intrigue into the eyes of these children.

I had to work Thursday night due to shift shortage, which I had originally planned to take off to spend uninterrupted time with SGZ1, but after working overnight, I grabbed a quick nap and then we headed to downtown Savannah, to eat, shop, and enjoy that special city. After spending two days in Georgia’s biggest city, where the skyscrapers stretch to the skies, I can honestly say that Savannah continues to be my favorite city in the South. You can keep all that big city hustle and bustle; Savannah is just the right size for me. While it was interesting to be woken to the sounds of a big city each morning we were there, the constant shrill of sirens, the annoying blasts of horns and airbrakes of big trucks and buses, I love living in a small town and having a medium sized city within a usually quick thirty-minute drive.

We concluded our celebration of SGZ1 with the small ice-cream bar/birthday cake party, which, as I alluded to earlier, brought on the outbreak of headache medicine (a glass of bourbon) as I made the monumental mistake of turning on Olivia Rodrigo’s playlist from Spotify. While all four girls belted out the lyrics to each song, which I underestimated the level of loudness these four could hit by themselves (I am not sure how Mrs. Z survived the sold-out Rodrigo show at State Farm Arena), my heart was warmed by how happy SGZ1 was spending the evening with her besties. It brought me back to my teenage years, when I rolled with a small group of amazing boys who shaped my whole youth, kept me out of real trouble, and inspired me to be the best I could in my formal education years. And at the end of the night, after all we had done to celebrate our beloved teen, the most sincere “thank you” came from her appreciation of having her friends over and the fun she had in those few short hours.

With each step forward in the journey of being a parent, I learn more about living and my walk with my children mirrors my walk with Jesus. Our children our little for such a short time. Born with the innocence of just wanting love and closeness, within months our focus as parents shifts to teaching and protecting and that role never leaves. While we must become our children’s greatest teachers, their strongest protectors, and the living examples of Jesus, our love for them should never change. My oldest is thirteen now, but when I look at her, I still see those big eyes blinking for the first time as she sought to understand the new world she had just been born into. SGZ1 may stand taller than Mrs. Z now, but to me, she’s still that little nugget, swaddled on my knee, slowly looking around a hospital room. SGZ1 may be reading the Bible on her own now, and taking high school courses in eighth grade, but she is still that little hungry soul that I attempt to teach and impress all I have learned over my many years of living.

Children are the greatest gift God can give us on this side of eternity. If you have been blessed with children yourself, I pray you are investing all your time and effort into raising them to know the Jesus I know: the loving, merciful, gracious King of Kings. It is heartbreaking that there are those who discard their children, who see them as a burden instead of a blessing and toss aside God’s personal gift to them. I could continue on the evils this world is currently presenting to the children of this generation, but I do not want to turn this celebratory post into darkness. I will get to that in the next few days. But for today, I hope you enjoyed my annual post of remembering all God did in my life when He sent our first little angel into our lives. I pray you all have a blessed weekend and continue to grow your relationship with little ones around you, and with your Heavenly Father, His Amazing Son, and the omniscient presence of His Holy Spirit. If you need some music to help you on that quest, I recommend listening to the new album by Forrest Frank, a sweeping album that opens with a sermon clip from the late Billy Graham and includes some toe-tapping, steering-wheel-slapping Christain hip-hop classics, as well as some slower, praiseworthy melodies like MIRACLE WORKER. But what I want to share with you today, is the title track, CHILD OF GOD, which is not a song, but a message, a message that fits perfectly with this message. Click the image below and soak this truth in. You are a CHILD OF GOD, despite all your mess, all your mistakes, all your burdens. God created you for greatness. Please do not ever forget that.