Scripture from biblegateway.com, NIV
Psalm 127

A song of ascents. Of Solomon.
1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain.
2 In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves.

3 Children are a heritage from the LORD,
offspring a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are children born in one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their opponents in court.


I decided to share this passage of scripture in my first blog post in about 8 or 9 months. Why? Well, it was right after my last post that my wife and I found out that she is pregnant! Our baby girl is officially due December 5th, but Amanda is already experiencing signs of labor so we are expecting her to arrive any day.

We have made a lot of preparations for the baby: the crib is assembled, the room is painted, the showers have been done (thank you to all, by the way) and we have basically every physical thing we need for her arrival. However, it occurred to me while looking at this scripture that there is one thing we need to focus on that is more important than anything else.

Notice the first sentence: "Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain." The Message translation puts it this way: "If God doesn't build the house, the builders only build shacks." You can look at it in a physical manner, but I look at it in this way: Unless God is the center of my house (or my family), then do I really have a home?

I could let my baby girl be surrounded by toys and gifts and every material desire she could ever have and yet still not have a home. I could meet her every physical need (shelter, food, clothing) and still not have a home.

The one thing that was pounded into my head when my wife and I got married was this: make sure Christ is the center of your marriage. I didn't really understand at the time just how important that really is. I do now, however, having been married for only 2 1/2 years. There have been some times that I thought we would never make it through, but God was right there to see us through it. When we have tried to make it on our own, we have failed. When we have leaned on Christ, we have succeeded! Success may not have looked like we though it would, but we succeeded nonetheless.

How much more important, then, is it to make sure that Christ is the center of our family? Our baby needs to know that there is more to life than the things you accumulate, the money you make, the people you know, the places you see, etc. Instead, our daughter (and all future children) need to know the love of God, the love of Jesus Christ who died for her before she was even born! She needs to know that there is One that loves her unconditionally. She needs to know from the beginning that she has a heavenly Father who loves her and wants to see her succeed in life and in whatever ministry she may be called to. She also needs to know that she has two earthly parents that love her unconditionally as well and would do anything for her.

As the Psalm above states, children are a gift from God! They need to be treated as such and recognize that they are special, wanted, and loved. My prayer is that my daughter knows from the beginning and for the rest of her life that she has a mother and a father who love her more than anything on this earth, and a heavenly father that loves her more than anything and gave His only Son so that she could have everlasting life.

Only then will our house truly be a home.