Happy 12th Birthday, Amara!

It is with great joy that we celebrate Amara's 12th birthday!  Over the past year, Amara has really grown up and is becoming a lovely young lady.  It is a blessing to be able to train Amara in the ways of the Lord and to see her grow and learn.

Amara,

Happy birthday!  We are indeed very grateful to the Lord that He has given you as a gift to our family and we praise God for allowing us the privilege of raising you as our dear daughter.  We have many joyful memories of the past with you and we look forward to the future knowing that the Lord has a plan and a purpose which includes giving you good works to accomplish that He has prepared in advance for you to do (Ephesians 2:10).  We love you, Amara, and we are committed to parenting you according to the truth of the Bible.

This year, we offer to you both a challenge and an encouragement in the following areas:

• Gratitude - In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, we read the following words: "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."  What powerful words that God has given to us by giving us direct insight into His will.  Remember that as you show and cultivate a heart of gratitude, you will be walking in a way that is consistent with God's will.

• Humility - The Bible teaches us the dangers of pride and the blessings of humility.  This principle is so important that God Himself will be opposing those that are prideful and giving grace to those that are humble.  Therefore, our encouragement to you is to follow the biblical admonition to "be clothed with humility." (1 Peter 5:5)

• Diligence -  It is of critical importance that you be working hard and that you have an affection for work.  Without diligence, what you do will be of limited effectiveness and will have limited lasting impact.  The Bible teaches that we should observe the ways of the ant and emulate the model of diligence.  In Proverbs 6:6-8, we read: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest."  Notice how the diligence of the ant is not based on having someone or something else to prod it along.  Learn from the ant, follow after her ways, and you will be wise.

• Servanthood - Service to others is a great gift that you can give to them and can provide you with joy and fulfillment unlike other activities.  View it as a privilege to serve others and look for opportunities to be able to bless those around you in this way.  If you keep your eyes open and have a heart to serve, you will be able to have many different ways that you can be a servant--not only in the future, but also right now.  Galatians 5:13 says: "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another."

If you strive to grow in each of these areas and commit them to the Lord asking for His help, you will become more godly and righteous with each passing day.  In this growth, you will be blessed and you will have a great influence on others, spurring them on toward love and good deeds through your example.

Happy birthday, Amara!  We love you very much!

Love Always,

Dad and Mom

Happy 4th Birthday, Tirzah!

It is such a blessing to be able to celebrate the birthdays of each of those in our family!  As the Bible teaches, children are an heritage of the Lord (Psalm 127:3) and we are filled with joy that God has given us the reward of the fruit of the womb.  Birthdays are a great time to look back with gratitude at God's gift and to look ahead with great hope trusting in God's sovereign plan.  This post is in honor of our dear daughter Tirzah for her 4th birthday.

Tirzah,

Happy birthday to you!  We are so very grateful that you are a part of our family.  God has given us a great blessing by giving you as our daughter and we are so excited to be able to celebrate your 4th birthday.  In many ways, it is hard to believe that 4 years have past since we were first able to gaze upon how God knit you together in the womb and to be able to first hold you in our arms.  You are growing up so quickly and it is a real blessing to see you learning and maturing day by day.  We are committed to raising you up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and it is our prayer that you will be a faithful daughter of the Lord Jesus Christ all the days of your life.

Always remember the importance of obedience and honor. Those two critical qualities are a tremendous key to being a godly girl and woman. The Bible states: "Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord." (Colossians 3:20, KJV) Every time that you obey Mom and Dad, you are pleasing God. Think about that--you please God by your obedience!  We hope that knowing that God is pleased will encourage you all the more to be joyfully obedient.  Honor is another way in which you can live in a manner that is pleasing to the Lord. One of the passages in God's Word about honor states: "Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth." (Ephesians 6:2-3, KJV)  What an incredible promise God attaches to this commandment of honor and that promise is indeed one that we pray you will know.  The two qualities of obedience and honor will provide you with a great foundation to live a godly life that will be pleasing to God and a blessing to others.

Tirzah, we love you very much!  May celebrating your birthday this year be a very joyful and special memory to you for many years to come!  Happy birthday!

Love Always,

Daddy and Mommy

Happy 19th Birthday, Jordan!

It is with a joyful heart that we provide this post in honor of Jordan for his 19th birthday!

Jordan,

Happy birthday to you!  It is a great blessing to see you walking in the truth.  You have shown yourself to be a man of keen discernment and we are grateful to see God's sanctifying work alive within you.  We are very blessed and honored to be your parents and our prayer is that God will use you in a great and mighty way for His kingdom purposes.  We know that God has prepared good works for you to accomplish and ordained that you should walk in those works (Ephesians 2:10).  The specific works are not just in the future, but include works that are now!  Every act that is making manifest the reign of Christ is a good work and includes the treatment of your siblings, the service to those around you, the giving to others, and the discussions about the application of God's Word to every area of life.   May this truth be a great source of encouragement and hope to you as you strive to live a life of faithful obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jordan, thank you for all that you contribute to the life and health of our family!  Thank you for being a blessing to us all with your humor, your conversation, your willingness to work, and your desire to think through every situation biblically.  May the Lord bless you with a very fruitful, productive year and may you be growing in Christ-like character day by day.

Happy birthday, Jordan!  We love you very much!

Love Always,

Dad and Mom

Happy 16th Birthday, Aidan!

Today is Aidan's 16th birthday!  It is with great gratitude to the Lord that we remember the past 16 years of the life of our son, starting with the date of his birth whereby we joyfully welcomed him into our arms and were able to look into his face for the very first time.  As we celebrate this occasion, we are not only filled with gratitude for the past 16 years, but we are also filled with tremendous hope for the future.  We look forward to seeing the coming days unfold, knowing that the Lord God has a plan and a purpose for those days, including the foreordaining of good works for Aidan to accomplish.

Aidan, we are very blessed to have you as a part of our family and we praise the Lord for the work that He has done in your life.  We are most grateful that our blessed Redeemer has regenerated you by including you among His elect.  In addition to this foundation of your salvation, we give thanks to God for the work that He has done in progressively conforming you to the image of Christ.  It is a great joy to see you walking in the truth and we pray that you will continue this journey of continual sanctification by always striving to take every thought, word, and deed captive to the obedience of Christ.

It is a blessing from Almighty God to be able to raise you as our son and we will strive to continue to raise you in the nurture and admonition of the Lord to the very best of our ability by the grace of God.  We place before you the following Scripture passage as a challenge and an inspiration:

Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.  Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.  Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.  Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.  She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. (Proverbs 4:5-9, KJV)

As you strive to be consistently obedient to this important teaching about seeking wisdom, you have some great and precious blessings that God will grant you - including being preserved, promoted, honored, and being given grace and glory.  We pray that you will be diligent in striving to get wisdom and that as you do so, may you give praise and honor to the Lord as He provides you with the blessings that He has promised.

Happy Birthday, Aidan!  We love you very much!

Love Always,

Dad and Mom

Happy Birthday, My Precious Bride!

Today is a special day in the life of our family as it is the day that God providentially brought my dearly beloved wife into this world.  We reflect on God's goodness, grace, and mercy that He has shown through the life of Jill and we look forward to God's continuing work in and through her knowing that He has promised that "he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6, KJV)

Jill,

Happy Birthday, my dearly beloved bride!  I am grateful that the Lord has brought us together for the great purposes of bringing forth godly children, modeling the relationship of Christ and the Church, and working together to take dominion for His honor and glory.  I am very blessed by your commitment to serve the Lord in what you do and I pray that God will pour out His abundant blessing by giving you much joyful, fruitful labor in the years to come.  Thank you for all that you do for me and for our family.  May you delight in being my dear help-meet and the mother to our precious children.

Jill, look to the past with great joy for what the Lord has done in the life of this family and how He has used you for His purposes.  Give Him praise for His work and the privilege that He has given you to be a part of that work.  Look to the future with tremendous hope knowing that the Lord will continue to carry out His plan and purpose having included you as His child in that plan and purpose and knowing that He has given you good works to accomplish, which He has foreordained (Ephesians 2:10).

Jill, you are very special to me and I am filled with gratitude to the Lord that He has given you to me as a gift!  I love you, honey!

Happy birthday, sweetheart!!

Forever Yours,

David

Happy 11th Birthday, Amara!

We are very grateful to the Lord for His precious gift of children!  As the Bible teaches, children are a heritage and the fruit of the womb is His reward (Psalm 127:3).  Birthdays are a great time to be praising the Lord for this great blessing.  Today is Amara's 11th birthday and we are filled with gratitude that God has given us this special daughter to raise in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Amara,

Happy Birthday, our dear daughter!  We are very blessed to have you as a part of our family and we give thanks to the Lord for His gift of you.  You have grown a lot over the past year and that growth has been both in physical stature and in godly character.  We are so pleased to see how you have grown and we are very excited about the future plans that God has for you.

Our challenge to you is to continue to read, study, memorize, and apply the truth of God's Word.  The Bible is sufficient for every area of life and as you diligently seek to understand what is contained in the Scriptures, God will give you the gift of His wisdom.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and there is no better way to have the appropriate fear of Him that is perfectly righteous and holy than to know Him through what He has revealed about Himself in the Bible.

Amara, we love you dearly and are grateful to have you as our daughter!  We are committed to train you up to be a Proverbs 31 woman and are delighted to be helping you along this path of godly womanhood.  Happy birthday, Amara!  Our prayer is that today will be a blessing to you, that you will know that we as your parents will love you dearly, that you will live in joyful obedience to the Word of God, and that you will know God's favor as you live a life that demonstrates that you are a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Love Always,

Dad and Mom

Happy 3rd Birthday, Tirzah!

Today is very special day in the life of our family as it is the day that Tirzah turns 3 years old!  These past 3 years have been filled with both joys and challenges as we seek to raise up Tirzah in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.  We praise the Lord for her birth and her life and consider it an incredible privilege to be given this special assignment from God to raise her in a godly, Christian home.


Tirzah,

Happy birthday to you!  We are so grateful to God that He provided you as a gift to this family.  We are very blessed to have you as our daughter and are committed to teaching you according to the standard of Holy Scripture.  Tirzah, we love you very much.  Our prayer for you is that you will be a godly girl and grow into godly womanhood.

Tirzah, you are a constant reminder to us of God's mercy as we had been diligently praying that God would add a new child to our family.  In God's plan, He answered that prayer by sending you into our household!  Indeed, God showed us His mercy through your conception, healthy pregnancy, safe delivery, and your growth in knowledge and stature over these past 3 years.  We are excited about what God has planned for you in the future and how you will fit into His overall sovereign plan.

It is critical that you follow the Lord Jesus Christ and we will continue to teach you about Him day by day.  It is only because of Christ that we have anything - for in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).  Not only does Jesus give us life, but it is only by repenting of sin and trusting in the work of Christ on the cross that you can have eternal life.  We will make certain that you understand this truth about salvation and will be praying that God will open your eyes to your need for a Savior and that He will bring the work of regeneration in your heart.

We love you, Tirzah!  Happy birthday, our precious, dear daughter!

Love Always,

Dad and Mom