The list of potential problems that we received after she was born could never have predicted the pride we felt when Penny learned to write her name, when she, after months of practice, jumped off the ground with two feet, when she finally progressed to big-girl underwear.

The data told us that learning would be harder for her than for a typically developing child. It is, and yet she is able to write all the letters of the alphabet and tell stories and make up songs. And no list of developmental problems told us that empathy would be easier for her, that her eyes would well with tears and she would run to console her little brother when he falls and cries, that even as a 2-year-old she would see a picture of a wounded man and say: “Me help! Me help!”

via Deciding Not to Screen for Down Syndrome – NYTimes.com.

Tragically, studies show that “92 percent of women who learn they are carrying babies with DS opt to abort.” (Washington Post.)

So what’s been going on since then? The biggest news is that we found out, we’re expecting again! We’re 22 weeks now, due the first week of January, but how our pregnancies go, I’m sure the baby will be here by Christmas at the latest. “The baby.” It’s a boy, which we just found out last week, so I really need to get used to referring to him as a he.

Other than that, everything else pales by comparison. Just trying to figure out as always what the Lord wants for us, and doing what we can to glorify Him and repent when we fall short.

Until next time…

See that they read it all. You need not shrink from bringing any doctrine before them. You need not fancy that the leading doctrines of Christianity are things which children cannot understand. Children understand far more of the Bible than we are apt to suppose.

via Ryle on Training Children in the Knowledge of the Bible � Cal.vini.st.

The second best part of it was the cost – it will only be $34 after rebate. They’re $80, plus if you have one of those 20% off coupons that BB&B sends to everyone on the planet, your in-store cost is only $64. Then you get a $30 mail-in rebate form. Sweet!

The best part, though?

It sits on my desk at work and every time I look at it I am reminded how much I love my wife and kids, all day long. You can’t put a price tag on that. I recommend something like this for every husband and father out there.

Haddon

The name “Haddon” is in honor of the great Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892). To learn more about Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the best resource on the web is Phil Johnson’s Spurgeon Archive at spurgeon.org.

There, you can find (among other things):

• A very brief biography of Spurgeon (with links to a ton of other biographies)
• A slightly longer, but still concise, bio
• A whole huge archive of Spurgeon’s writings and sermons

If you want to read a good short book by Spurgeon, I highly recommend All of Grace, available online for free.

Spurgeon once said that the secret to his highly regarded preaching was this: “I take my text and make a bee-line to the cross.”

Zerubbabel

According to Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary:

ZERUBBABEL [zeh RUB uh buhl] (offspring of Babylon) � head of the tribe of Judah at the time of the return from the Babylonian Captivity; prime builder of the Second Temple.

Zerubbabel is a shadowy figure who emerges as the political and spiritual head of the tribe of Judah at the time of the Babylonian captivity. Zerubbabel led the first group of captives back to Jerusalem and set about rebuilding the Temple on the old site. For some 20 years he was closely associated with prophets, priests, and kings until the new Temple was dedicated and the Jewish sacrificial system was reestablished.

If you’d like to read more about Zerubbabel (and listen to his name pronounced), try these links:

• Zerubbabel leads the Jewish exiles back to Jerusalem and begins rebuilding the temple: Ezra 3-5
• Census of those who returned with Zerubbabel: Nehemiah 7, 12
• Prophecies concerning Zerubbabel: Haggai 1-2
• More prophecies: Zechariah 4
• Zerubbabel was also an ancestor of Christ. For his place in the genealogy, see Matthew 1:12-13 and Luke 3:27

Haggai 2:4-7

4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, 5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. 6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. (ESV)

Zechariah 4:6-7

6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. 7 Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’” (ESV)

Psalm 127:3-5

3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. (ESV)

In the meantime, just waiting for the real show to begin. And so without further ado:

Random Thoughts, Labor Edition

• iMonk has an excellent commentary on Ed Young’s 7 day sex challenge
• Mark Driscoll offers up six essentials for Bible study
• Lydia Brownback enumerates biblical reasons for thanksgiving
• Terry Delaney reviews C. J. Mahaney’s latest book, Worldliness
• If the hospital didn’t block Flash video, I’d be watching this presentation from James White on New Testament textual reliability
• Gerald Hiestand contemplates the loss of God’s presence
• And just for fun, I will be trying this recipe sometime soon