The Attentiveness of God

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sermon. God Bless. How do we think of these words

in the first Thessalonians, admonish the idol,

encourage the weak, be patient Lord. And some

of us need admonishing and some of us need patience

and some of us need encouragement. And I pray

Lord that this morning you would meet us where

we are, that you'd encourage us, that you would

admonish us, that you would challenge us. that

your kindness and your grace, your attentiveness

would be evident in our lives. And then, Lord,

having received such kindness and care, Lord,

would we imitate you, please? God, shape us by

your good news, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

So just around the time when Lily was being born,

I attended a conference, actually along with

Jed, the previous pastor here down outside of

Atlanta in Decatur. And among other things that

were going on at this conference, it was a bunch

of pastors, was one of them, this guy named Martin

Bond was giving a talk, kind of a discussion

that he was leading. He gave a talk and then

answered questions like these things happen about

parenting. I remember thinking about it, of course,

because partly I wasn't down there necessarily

for that. But of course, in my mind, with the

idea of having a child, this was something I

was eager to hear about. And I had read books,

and I continue to read some books on parenting.

I listen to lectures and stuff. But what Martin

Bonds said with me stuck. And here's what he

was mostly talking about is that parenting kind

of shifts. Like there's these different stages

where parenting takes on certain sort of demands

and sort of invite certain kinds of speech and

actions and care for.