Dada's Prayers: Part 1 (One Week Old)
David is one week old today! I wanted to share my prayer for him and our family today (it's long, but when has a preacher ever been concise?). I pray that all of you have a blessed day and that each of you is a fierce warrior in prayer for your family, roommates, and friends: for our "battle is not against flesh and blood" but against "powers of darkness."
Lord, thanks for more sleep than I deserve with a newborn, for help in every way. May everything I received today be like daily bread from heaven, received as a gift straight from your hands.
Lord, thanks for Heather, her bravery, patience, love, kindness, her deep yearning to be more, to be better (healthy)--not for her glory, but YOURS--that she might serve you.
Lord, thanks for Mindy, for her relentless encouragement, energy, positivity, zeal for snuggles and serving ALL of David's physical and emotional needs, for pointing us to not just rest, but REST IN JESUS.
Lord, thanks for Charlie, the miraculous tenderness and deep affection he has for my son. I know that such a love is from above.
Lord, thanks for my sister, Katie, and best Auntie ever! She loved our son more than anyone ever could, long before he was born. She has claimed your promises and longs for redemption and a new legacy of hope and faith to begin with his generation. Lord, I pray that David would have her heart of love and service, that David might be a prophet, a voice crying out in the wilderness of this digital Babylon we live in.
Lord, thanks for my aunt, Anna. She's been a mom to this orphan. Please never let me take her for granted, may you bless her and keep her, may you be ever close to her. Thank you for her joy and excitement about David.
Lord, thanks for grandpa, for his chance to meet David and become a great grandpa. Lord, thanks for his legacy of faith and generosity. No person is more financially responsible for my ministry than him.
Lord, thanks for Kevin and Myra, for their wisdom and advice. Thanks for the Babywise book and the belief and hope that having children doesn't have be a sad end, but a happy beginning.
Lord, thanks for models and mentors in showing me how to be BOTH a dad and pastor.
Lord, thanks for each of the churches that you have called me to. Thanks that all of them trusted me to learn how to minister to them too, reminding me daily that "Jesus loves the little children."
Lord, thanks for silly jokes and stories from friends like Karl and Ashley, for their love and laughter...I need friends like them more than air, for they restore my sanity in times of great trial.
Lord, thanks for beer and friends to drink with (that's a bit Lutheran, sorry). Thanks for Chris, Michael, John, Victor, and so many others that have been there for me over the years.
Lord, thanks for an amazing, calm, happy, loving son that has stolen my heart and thrown away the key. In even a week, I am overwhelmed by how good of a Heavenly Father you are (and confess how much I need to grow as a dad). I need you more than ever God. David is the greatest gift of Tangible Grace I have ever received.
Amen.
