On December 26th, 2017 the Lord gave my wife and I a very special gift. Our second child Dontre was born the day after Christmas. Most of the time I am a very non-emotional person, except when I’m in the presence of the Lord, but when Dontre was born the flood gates seemed to open. As the nurses were cleaning up Dontre and the doctor was checking him out I was literally sitting in the corner of the room trying my best to hold in my emotions. All at once all these emotions just hit me; happiness, joy, fear, delight, anxiousness, and a sense of great pride for my boy.
The first time I held Dontre, I felt the presence of the Lord fill the room. I feel like the Lord was saying, you are not going to be alone through this process. As my wife and I trust the Lord to guide us through this next chapter in life, joy begins to fill our hearts with an unexplainable sense that there is no way we can fail. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit, Romans 15:13. Joy and peace will fill your heart if you TRUST him throughout all things, especially with raising children.
Let’s be honest, the second thing that came to mind as I was holding him was, what in the world were Kara (my wife) and I thinking?!! I am still learning how to raise my first son, now I have to raise two at the same time? I think God has a funny sense of humor; He definitely gives us the strength to raise these kids. I also think He has to be sitting up on his throne with a huge smirk on His face when our kids are screaming at the top of their lungs at two O’clock in the morning because they had an accident. Those are the times when I pray to the Father, why did you make bowel movements smell so bad??
Marriage got real for my wife and I when we had our first child. We didn’t realize how different we were raised until a screaming baby came into the picture. Luckily we were both on the same page with disciplining children. But when Jacoby (our first son) cried in the middle of the night, after three nights I was ready to let him cry it out and Kara was not. I won’t really go into that because I could write a separate post about that, but simple differences like that started to appear. With much conversation with each other and prayer we were able to adjust to those differences somewhat easily, but it took some time for both of us to get pride out of the picture.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, Philippians 2:3. Initially I wanted to control the situation my way, rather than our way. Finally, once I was able put my wife’s opinion above my selfishness and pride, we were able to finally make smart decisions about raising our son. It seems like déjà vu since we have another little one in our home again. When we both are losing sleep, we must pray (a lot) that we are able to keep our emotion in check.
We can already tell that Dontre is going to be different than Jacoby. Jacoby was a very relaxed child. He rarely cried throughout the day, unless he was hungry. He rarely cried when we changed his diaper, nor did her cry when he was wet or had an accident. Jacoby also really enjoyed bath time. Dontre is pretty much the complete opposite. Dontre cries the whole time when we change his clothes or diapers. Dontre hates bath time and basically unless he is sleeping or eating he usually is wining or crying. Since he was born only a couple days ago, the only thing he does is sleep, so as he starts waking up, we are praying he relaxes more.
It is funny to me how different I can already tell my two boys are in just a few days. These boys have the same genes, same bloodline, same parents, but completely different individuals. I’m very excited to raise these two boys, and pray that all who read this would say a prayer for my family. I think I might have gotten 15 hours of sleep in the past 4 days, so I’m probably slap happy at this point in time. I’m grateful that God has given me this chance to be a part of their lives. I’m grateful that Dontre is a member of this crazy family.
God is such an amazing person, I pray for all parents that they are able to find God in their children. Find what God is doing in your community and in your life. First join the Father in what He is doing. Second tell your children about the Father and take them along as you join the Fathers work. Let them join you, so that your children can recognize the work of the father for themselves. It is important that they recognize His work, so that they will join His work when we aren’t around. Let’s pray for this next generation to do some amazing work for the Lord.
Have a blessed New year!!
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