Yesterday, at 10:10am I became a Daddy (for the fourth time), as Gracie Belle Lehr was born at: 6 pounds and 12 ounces. It was an exciting and overwhelming day. It was exciting to think about all of the potential that is there on the first day of her life. Anything could happen. She could do and become anything at this point. That is scary and exciting for a father. It is scary to think of all of the danger, all of the pain, all of the decisions that are out there. At the same time, all of those decisions bring with them great opportunity for her to be used by God. My prayer for her like each of my other three girls will be that, God will use them beyond what I could ask or imagine (Eph 3:20-21). I would hate to limit them with my dreams of what could be.

The role of a father is overwhelming too. Yesterday when Gracie’s three older sisters came up to visit I had a moment of great joy. Amidst the high pitched voices, the twirling hair and dresses, I was overwhelmed with how gracious God has been to entrust me with these little gifts. I am overwhelmed that God in His divine wisdom thought I would be the best possible father for these girls. A father accountable to point her to her Heavenly Father. To show her unconditional love. To teach and train her (Deut 6:4-9). A father with the role of showing her what faith looks like through my own life. It is all overwhelming, but its part of the God given gift of having the only role that shares a name with our Heavenly Father.

I just started reading through the Bible from the beginning. Usually, when I come to a genealogy I think, “OK hard name beget hard name, beget hard name etc.” However, tonight I was struck with the genesis and genius of the genealogies.

Think about the genius of genealogies. You can trace the story of humanity through the genealogies from Adam to your own. What is even more riveting about that is that within the story of humanity every human has a story. Every human from Adam to you and every hard name in between has a story. There is a story of birth. A story of childhood (good and bad). A story of growth and development, pain and past, dreams and future. Every person has a story. For Adam, he was married to Eve. I am sure they fought. I am sure they enjoyed one another. We don’t get all of the details of his life, but the guy lived a long time. I am sure there were a lot of details. Hence, he has a story, just like you.

So from the beginning of these sometimes seemingly boring genealogies there have been people created by God for His glory that each have a story. What is your role in the story?

We all have times when we seek advice from others. How do you know who to ask? It seems that while everyone has an opinion, certain people have true discernment. Where does that discernment come from? I remember while I was taking classes at DTS, I had several decisions to make. I had one friend who I would talk to during these times because he seemed to have that genuine discernment. I asked him one time why he was so wise. When he answered he told me how one of his mentors taught him that everyday as part of his time reading the Word he would read a chapter from the book of Proverbs. Since there are 31 of them, there is basically one for everyday of the month. If we are seeking God’s wisdom it makes sense we would read from God’s Wisdom literature.

Here is one that stuck out to me today:

Proverbs 14:30 A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.

God has been giving me verses on peace lately. I know I am at peace with God, but I am still don’t fully understand the peace of God.