Anticipation

Remember the final couple of days before Christmas when there is a gaggle of gifts under the tree, and having to wait patiently for them? Or remember the excitement and anticipation before kickoff, where you nervously seek things to distract yet keep you focused on doing your job?

Well, that is basically our stage of life right now...except for one problem-those focus upon me and what I get.
While, Lindsay and I are waiting for our child to come into this world and the countdown nears to her due date (3 days), we are eager to meet this child: to learn, to grow, to love, and to serve.

For me, that is the biggest perspective I want to take into parenthood. Not this idea that a child is mine and for my entertainment or fulfillment, but rather view him/her as someone created by God and in deep need of our service.

I remember being at a youth camp with a bunch of middle schoolers, when the female leader--a mother of a 6th grader--came up to me bawling after a worship service. As we talked, she explained that she was having trouble letting her child run around with the older kids. While she wanted to protect and "mother" him, she had realized that he is not fully hers but God's child. Her parental responsibility is to serve and protect this child so that it may grow in faith and become free in Christ.

I pray during those sleeplessness nights and the earpiercing cries and whatever else parenthood has in store for me, that I can remember that "this ain't about me," but rather it is an opportunity to graciously love through sacrifice (of sleep and sanity) for another.

And at any moment our life is about to be turned upside down and inside it.