I woke up last night at about 4 in the morning.  I woke up with a clear thought.  A very pronounced thought.

I woke up hearing, “Don’t store your treasures here on earth.”  Over and over again.

I’m not sure what it meant.. I don’t know if it has some deep meaning, or if it was just a reminder.

Did I hear the voice of God?  I don’t know.

But it is definitely something I need prayers about.

So weird.

When I was little, I was pretty convinced that I could not sunburn. My first sunburn didn’t happen on my parents watch either.  My babysitter took us all to the pool, from 8 in the morning to sund0wn.  Sunburn is probably an understatement.  The sun destroyed me.

I remember my mom’s reaction that night when she got home.  She took one look at me and my siblings and…. well, let’s just say she put the Hell in Helen.  I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why she was so upset with the babysitter.  All I was capable of thinking was that our babysitter did something nice for us, and let us play in the pool longer than mom did.  I thought maybe my mom was mad because she thought we’d start to like our babysitter more than her, because our babysitter let us do more stuff.

Looking back, I get it.  The reason my mom made me get out of the pool all the time was she knew my tolerance.  She knew exactly how long I could stay in the sun.  Exactly when I needed to put more sunscreen on.  It’s pretty impressive.  I’ve only ever been sunburned because of my own poor judgment.

I could take the obvious metaphor here and relate this to God, and if we do things God’s way we’d be alright… but I’m not gonna. I just thought I’d write this out, and think about it.  Just knowing that I’m gonna be a parent soon makes me think about this stuff.  Am I gonna know when my little girl needs to come in from the sun?

Weird stuff.  Thoughts?

“My wife and I are having a kid.”  That sounds so cool to say.  It’s easy to say.  “My wife and I are having a little girl.”  That’s even easy to say.

Then, I thought about it.

I thought about a lot of things.  Here are some things I’ve come to realize.

I have to set the example on how a Man treats a woman.  How I treat my wife, is what my daughter is going to expect on her dates, and from any male ever trying to win her over. (Seriously cannot type that without a tear in my eye. Forget “9^th inning bases loaded down by three ,full count” THIS is pressure)

My mouth isn’t the cleanest in all the land.  In about 5 months, I’m gonna have a sponge.  I don’t know how young they start listening and remembering and all that stuff babies do, but I know already when I let out the F word, Andrea looks at me and simply says, “I’m having your baby.”  Ouch.  I need to stop… or at least try.

I can’t tell my wife no.  How am I going to tell a ‘mini-her’ no?  (I’m taking suggestions)

Every action I take. Every word I say, and every breath I breathe isn’t just going to be seen or heard, It’s going to be looked up to, remembered, loved, mimicked.  It’s going to shape a little child in to a woman.  (Breathe…. Breathe….. Breathe…)

I read that dads really shape their children’s view of THE Father.  Holy-wow-dang-shoot-fire-spit.  That’s a lot of pressure.  I don’t even think I can go in to that, but Whoa.

I know this is all stuff most parents out there know.  I know I’m not saying anything new.  It’s just all starting to hit me.  And frankly it’s a lot of pressure.

Do you remember when it all sunk in for you?

In case you don’t know. Tam does something called Thursday swap over at her corner of the internet.

If you don’t know Tam, you really should.  She has an awesome husband and a great funny family (but doesn’t use punctuation or capitols.. unlike me, I use them whenever and where ever I want).  From all the tweets and comments I’ve read, everyone admires her children.  If you don’t know her story, read it here. It literally speaks the love of God.  You cannot afford to not read it.(did I word that right?)  But… today is not about me… so without further ado, I give you….. Tam

———————————- Family—————————-

we’ve been talking about family, kids, open communication and sex over at my place this week. ive always felt that families today arent near as open with one another as i feel they should be. we live in a society where we let other people do our work. the work of the family, the parent. we defer way too much to the schools. public and private. in fact, i found that when our oldest went to a private christian school, for kindergarten and 1st grade, we became very relaxed in our responsibilities at home. like, talking about God, reading the bible and even praying with her. in the back of my mind i knew she was gettin all that stuff at school, so i didnt feel as guilty when i let it slip and slide in our home.

parents? we have to be proactive. we need to be. our kids need us to be. being and doing so shows our children we care. shows them they are important enough to us to take the time to tackle the hard stuff because they are worth every ounce of effort and energy we can give them. is it always easy? no. is it always convenient? nope. but does that mean we dont do it? of course not.

and even though we’ve always heard that it takes a village to raise a child, which i agree with, it doesnt mean we step back and let the village do it alone.

ive been told before “youre so lucky you have such good kids!”. seriously? do you think it was really luck? no. its been, and still is, the hardest thing we’ve ever done. but when something means the world to you…you will go the ends of the earth for it.

its time we take back our families and our roles as parents seriously. the future of our young ones depend on it.

as andy and andrea prepare for their first born i believe they will be phenomenal parents. ive read their written words, which i believe are the desires of their hearts, and am convinced they will pour every bit of themselves into their family.

lets remember to pray for them. to pray for each other and our children. THAT is the best thing we can do for one another!

So.

Tomorrow Andrea and I go to find out the sex of the baby.  Now, I’m not going to do anything crazy like this guy, and let you name the baby but I thought it would be fun  for everyone to put their guess in.

Let me make this perfectly clear.  You don’t win anything, just your pride.  So.. Go ahead.  Leave a comment below with what you guess the sex of the baby is.  I’m anxious to hear your guesses.    And, on the bright side, there’s a 50% chance you’re right!