My daughter Elisabeth Grace turns five today on 5/5/15.
Five is a significant number in Scripture and has been linked to “grace”. This is interesting because, just before we learned that we were expecting Ellie, I had humbled myself to a group of people from our church on a road trip back from a retreat and confessed to them that I did not understand grace. I asked them to pray for me. This was humbling because, along with my wife, I was their “worship leader”.
God was one the job. Within a week or so we learned that we were expecting a baby. We had been married eight years and this was our first.
But instead of being excited as I should have been, I was terrified. Why? Because I wanted our children to grow up surrounded by love and experience the true Jesus. My heart was just so sick and broken I could not provide that… or so I thought.
Then one day, shortly after, I was sitting at a red light in traffic and God whispered to me, “You know I created you to love you. Don’t you?”
I melted… My frozen heart melted. Wow.
It was one of those life changing moments followed by many others that further deepened me in God’s grace.
Nine months later Ellie is born. Remember the scene when Jacob “imprints” on Bella’s daughter in one of the Twilight movies? I totally connected to that scene because that’s what happened for me and my daughter Ellie. Right after she was born, her mama was in surgery and I held Ellie and just stared into her eyes for an hour.
The fact that she was born on this day (5/5/10) and that she came to us after praying to understand grace was not lost on me. So we named her Elisabeth Grace. Elisabeth means “dedicated to God” and we had the story of Samuel in mind (who was specifically dedicated to God) and also Philips four gifted prophetic daughters (Two down and two to go!)
Interestingly, five months and five days later (10/10/10 @ 10:10 am) we dedicated her at church. She said her first words that day: “Oh my mama.” Little did we realize how amazing it was for a five month old to talk. She scrunched up her face and concentrated real hard to say it and then didn’t speak again till kids normally do.
It is a delight to see how much Ellie loves Jesus stories and we enjoy watching Jesus movies together.
If you have children of your own, we would recommend these following resources and would love to hear your suggestions for further resources on developing spiritual growth in children:
The Jesus storybook Bible! I can’t say enough good things about this. We have the dvd which Ellie watches over and over. Get this for your children! A must have.
Sweet Dreams Princess CDs by Sheila Walsh!!!! Wow. Incredibly amazing resource. Ellie went to bed tonight listening to one of the CDs. Sheila makes it so personal and fun for them.
We also love the Visual Bible. There is one for the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of John. Both are worth owning!
Finally, here is a picture of our princess Ellie (who just so happened to go see her first movie in the theater, the new Cinderella, with her mama tonight) helping us out on our latest recording, Reflect Amazing Grace. She sings the last song. Can you guess what it is?
By the way, the previous blog is about how we are giving this album away for free. All we ask is that you pass it on.
Thanks for listening!
What are some resources you have found helpful in spiritually enriching your kids? Please leave a comment!
related blogposts:
- I wrote this blog about her a few months before she was born.
- Here is where Ellie and I sing Olaf’s song, In Summer on my ukulele
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14 NLT)
Daniel Lovett 