The Author

I started this blog almost six years ago. Since then it has become an almost daily way for me to record life as it unfolds. When I sit down in the evening, after tucking my children in, I open my laptop and ask myself: "What do I want to remember about today?"

Some days it is something one of the children said or did. Some days it is a quote I read, a sermon I heard or a tidbit from a conversation with a friend I haven't been able to shake. Some days, like today, it is just a feeling. My heart is full.

It is Spring. My relationship with my husband is in a great place. My children are maturing and we are enjoying each other. I can't get enough of my people right now. I feel like I am learning something new about them every day.

The night we returned from the Dominican, I met a man in the Atlanta airport as we were waiting for our bags. It was such a random conversation to be having with a stranger because we immediately went deep. He was traveling with his only son, a bright, accomplished, God- fearing Senior in college. After an exchange of only a couple of sentences, he looked at my children and said: "You know, children are already born with all they need to be who they are--it just takes a while for it to all come out."

It was such a striking thought: Our children born in tiny newborn bodies housing all these gifts within their sweet baby soft skin...as they grow the different gifts within them are unwrapped. I pondered it for days. Is that biblical? Is that true?

After a couple of weeks of pondering it, I think there is truth, but according to Psalm 139 there is a better analogy:

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:15b-16 NIV

I love the idea of delivering these little novels--full of love, laughter, plot twists and suspense. We start at page one and spend the rest of their lives turning pages to find out what happens next. Sometimes the story keeps us up all night. We are tempted to skip ahead to the last page to make sure it all turns out alright.

I love this analogy because it reminds me that God, not ME, is the author, creator and sustainer of my children's lives. I don't get the credit--nor do I need the undo pressure. I have a responsibility to love them and point them to Him, but He has written their story.