"Theology Thursday" feat Jeneil Flowers is UP NOW! (part 2)

I am not exactly a “kid” person. I love teenagers, but toddlers and kids…that’s a little tougher for me. Add to that I didn’t exactly have the best relationship with my mother due to her Paranoia Schizophrenia, and I was sure that my baby was going to be a baby girl . I wondered, "How am I going to communicate the truth of God and His ways with an infant as I go along my day?" The Lord knows they don’t come home from the hospital speaking or even understanding the English language! How will she comprehend my theological discussion? I believe that the answer the Lord gave me was to be an imitator of Christ.

What did Christ do in this situation when he spoke with “spiritual infants”? He spoke in parables. He communicated His teaching from God in a relevant and easy way. So I sought the Lord for the specific details on how to do that with this child I was carrying at the time. Well, the first instruction that the Lord gave me to help me in this process was choosing her name. We named her two renditions of Hebrew names that meant, "pleasant and beautiful lamb". “That’s it!” I thought. “I will teach her that she is like a lamb and she can choose to follow the One Good Shepherd. Then, as she gets older, I can teach her what the Good Shepherd says about how 'pleasant and beautiful' lambs should live. And of course every time we go to the zoo we’ll pay the extra 10 bucks to feed the sheep by hand!” (LOL, I have never even been to a petting zoo, so this may or may not ever happen!)

So there I was registering everything imaginable with a lamb on it for my baby showers. My little lamb will wake up every morning to lamb sheets, lamb blankets, lamb changing pad covers, stuffed toy lambs, and even a lamb mural painted on the wall that says, “The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. Ps. 23:1 (NLT)” in the sky! Over the top, you say? Maybe. Or maybe I am just pricking her heart with a very vivid impression of my faith. Don’t worry, I am not deceived into thinking that Nyomi, my daughter, will never stray away from the way of the Lord just because we read Psalms 23 every night while she wears her lamb pj’s! But I do believe the Lord will bless the wisdom of her parents to apply the instruction of the Lord not only in their individual lives but in the life of the child He gave them. So maybe one day down the road you will hear me referring to the one true God as the God of Emmitt (my dad), Jeneil, and Nyomi.