Diligently Training Hearts: From Homecoming King, To Homeschooling Dad

The previous four blog posts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4) described my journey to salvation from my sins and the process of the Holy Spirit working in my life to make me acceptable before God. From 2002 to present, God was (and still is) preparing my heart and life to provide for a family with children. He blessed me with a beautiful wife (on the inside and outside) that has always stood with me in the good and bad moments of life. When we got married in 2003, we decided to wait at least five years to have children. Why five years?

Well, at that time, we had vehicle loans. I had just bought a brand new truck and I desired to payoff my five year vehicle loan prior to having children. So we were on "The Five Year Plan".This sounds crazy huh! I actually thought that if I paid off my vehicle loan I would have enough money to have a child. How ignorant I really was on this! But hey, I went to college, I knew everything right!?! Think again!

Even though it was a ridiculous reason for waiting to have children, the decision to wait did provide some benefit since in those five years Colleen and I could spend time getting to know each other as husband and wife and laying the foundation for "The Brown Family." During those years, we took several trips which included places like Massanutten, The Outer Banks, Pennsylvania, and even one trip to Hawaii (which we considered our belated honeymoon). We also worked diligently in our church with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and hardly ever missed a church service. And we even got to take naps like we did in college between classes! This was a necessity (and still is today with children).

As we laid the foundation for the Brown Family, I of course created a spreadsheet to plan everything. On this spreadsheet was our plan to have our first child. Everyone in the family would always joke with me about my spreadsheets and ask if the spreadsheet was aligned with our five year plan. It was! And here is the amazing thing, the first child we were blessed with (Noah) was born just prior to our fifth year anniversary. The five year plan was a success! The spreadsheet worked! We had our first child in August of 2008 and I paid my truck loan off around that time! We laughed at times since people called our first child a spreadsheet baby! However he was (and is) much more precious than that! He is a gift from God and we are so thankful for his life!

Then came February 2010, and our second child was born. Guess what. She (Eden) was not on a spreadsheet. She was a special blessing from God. I believe it was God's way of saying that He knows better than me and to FORSAKE the spreadsheet when it comes to GOD'S HERITAGE! And from that point on I did. No more "plans". No more "spreadsheets". However I did require a lot of FAITH! Eden was born with a seizure disorder and we were not sure if we should have anymore children since the disorder could be hereditary. However, after much prayer, one night God spoke to me and said, "I got this! I am in control! Trust me!" It wasn't an audible voice, however there was no doubt God spoke to me that night. My heart knew it! My spirit bared witness with God's spirit! And then came JoyAnna FAITH. And then one year later came Harvest Hope!

God has truly had his hand on the Brown Family since the foundation was laid in 2003 when Colleen and I got married. I never dreamed I would be blessed with four children (so far). But then again, God is in control and I don't need a "plan" or five more years to believe it!