Brandt

Enough about the wonder of HAVING children and a little more detail ABOUT them, you say? Introducing Brandt, our firstborn--and he won't let you forget it... Brandt turned nine in November--as though we needed a reminder that our days of grand and exclusive influence in his life are now on the wane rather than on the rise. Not that I expect the teenage years to be a nightmare--rather this past birthday has been a gentle reminder that we're halfway to raising an 18-year-old who could, in theory, support himself with a job, go to college, be drafted, or trot off to Europe with a backpack on his own dime! I am so thankful that our situation in life allows us to homeschool Brandt so that the next nine years with him are ones that we will see, enjoy, and respond to with our own eyes and ears.

Brandt entered the world with a piercing scream and an extreme sensitivity to all stimuli but has gradually learned to accommodate the rigors of the 21st century. He started out as an easily irritated toddler who nevertheless had an enormously accommodating heart for a (very) select group of friends, parents, and grandparents. He has retained the generous heart, remains fiercely loyal to that original group of friends & family, and has lost more than a little of the irritation. Nevertheless, he still likes to know The Master Plan at all times, which, in a family of six with a fighter pilot for a father, is more easily expected than delivered. By the grace of God, he will learn to trust Providence a little more. I have great faith for I am personally familiar with this strength which so easily turns into occasion to sin!

This year has seen a huge change in Brandt's heart. For years we were faithless and therefore hopeless in our observation of what seemed to us a coldness toward the things of God--even skepticism. That's right, I said "skepticism"--from a three-year-old. And then from a four-year old and a five-year old. But over the past three years, God has used His word, His discipline, and even our failures & confessions to continually soften our son's heart and to cause him to TRUST. This past year we noticed a sincere desire to repent of sin when he was confronted and a longing to know more of the things of God. Brandt started asking us about the Lord's Supper and about the blessings of being in the family of God. On the day he made his profession of faith at Covenant in Florida, you should have heard the booming voice with which he answered the Book of Church Order! And the excitement on his face when he first tasted the sacraments: you might have actually guessed it was spiritual food for our souls...

Brandt is constantly thinking of kindnesses he can deliver to anyone in his circle. His "acts of charity" fund is constantly sapped whereas his "spending" fund grows and grows while he considers the perfect use for it--PERFECTION being a major driver in our little boy's psyche. Nevertheless, he is growing much more patient with himself--and sweet and tender with his little brother Seth and his sister Eva. Brian and I have both observed him counseling his sister with God's word and holding her little hand gently when she is in the midst of some impetuous leap into sin. And although Brandt swore eternal enmity with our second born, Gresham, the week after he was born, he has now learned to value him as the greatest and best friend a boy could have. The two are inseparable and have sworn undying loyalty to each other I think, whether we're talking football, legos, street hockey, soccer, roller blades, drawing, paper airplanes, wrestling, or bedtime stories.

One of Brandt's favorites is anything--and I mean ANYTHING--to do with college football. Although we don't have a television, he and Gresham would spend every moment of their Autumn Saturday in front of the game tracker on our computer if, well, you know what Nazis we are with Media! Somehow that teeny little box of graphics-only plays on a computer screen has managed to teach him every intricacy of the game--a game which, despite the four males in our family, continues to elude me as to its rules or its meaning. Something to do with "on the fields of friendly strife" I think? Leave it to me to think of a poem when I ought to be thinking about goals--er, touchdowns?

That's Brandt, in a nutshell. I could go on for hours. I'm so humbled by the fact that a little man with great promise has been allowed into my lost little life. He brought us purpose toward God when we needed that kick in the pants. And now he is turning into a straight, strong arrow in our quiver.