Asher David -- Blessed Beloved Son

As I take the time to sit down and share with you the most incredible, marvelous, and God glorifying story of how God brought this handsome lil' man into the world I am still in awe of His goodness and favor to those who seek Him and love Him with their whole hearts! To be honest God used the birth of my little nephew to bring back at heart that had begun to doubt and question Him in many areas...that heart was mine! But let me share the story!

It all started when my dear sister Abi started struggling with high blood pressure at the end of her pregnancy. This of course caused concern and a need for it to be monitored to make sure the baby was not being harmed by her high blood pressure. Josiah and Abi prayed a lot about what they should do about her condition and felt led to consult the Doctor they were working with at the hospital in Seward as to what her feelings were on the matter. The Doctor was definitely concerned about Abi's high blood pressure and she felt it would be better if she did NOT go into labor naturally in an attempt to keep her blood pressure down in labor. Thus my dear sis was scheduled to be induced on Thursday the 1st of December!

Abi was SO overwhelmed by thought of being induced because she REALLY wanted to have her baby naturally! Drugs, IV'S, and induced labor wasn't exactly her dream delivery! In her frustration, fear, and helplessness she began to cry out to the Lord for His intervention and asked the church family to stand with her in praying for labor to begin!

There was one small problem...Abi's due date was not until the 9th of December and she was NOT known to go early! Joanna arrived two weeks after her due date. We all knew that we must believe that God was totally capable of the miracle we were asking for! Thus on Monday we all started praying.

On Tuesday no labor had started and we started praying that God would put Abi into labor TODAY! Tuesday night Abi showed signs of labor starting and we were all ecstatic! We truly serve a God who comes through! But then labor did not progress any further that night.

Abi slept well through the night and awoke Wednesday morning to no signs of labor whatsoever. It was "deadline day" the following day if no labor transpired she would be induced. As Abi lay in bed that morning she considered taking large amounts of castor oil to try to self induce labor, but then she thought of all the scriptures God had spoken to her in her fear and concerns about this birth, being induced and her high blood pressure! She prayed, "Lord you want to get all the glory! You can start this labor without me doing ANYTHING! Please start my labor!"

Twenty minutes later Abi experienced her first contraction...Abi shared with me later she'd NEVER been SO HAPPY to have contractions!:) Abi's labor progressed at the house for awhile as they monitered her blood pressure themselves, but after about two hours of laboring it was quite clear that her labor was progressing much more rapidly then Joanna's did (Joanna's was a 24 hour labor) so they headed to the hospital.

Abi's blood pressure remained stable throughout most of the labor and never hit a dangerous level. After only three and a half hours of labor Asher was born! What an AWESOME God we serve!

On Wednesday November 30th Grandpa, Grandma, and a couple of excited Aunts and an Uncle jumped enthusiastically into the mini van and headed for Seward, Nebraska!:)

I LOVED holding my precious, perfect, darling little nephew and staring at his face and touching and kissing his soft cheeks, but much of the day I found myself marveling, and thinking on the story that God had given this little guy!

What God had done for His children, how He had come through, how He had heard their cries gripped me in a way I couldn't have guessed it would! As I touched on at the beginning of this post I'd REALLY been struggling in my spiritual walk lately! SO MUCH had happened recently that I didn't understand, and instead of excepting God's grace to walk through it I'd rejected it and grown bitter and distanced from Him!

Seeing God's faithfulness in the birth of my little nephew caused me to reflect on the MANY times God has come through for me in the past, the ways He's seen me through overwhelming trials, has delivered me from the grips of sins clutch, and has breathed life into my very soul!

As I thought on these things it was if I heard God whispering in my ear, "Come home Bekah, come home!" I saw Josiah and Abi seek God in not knowing what to do, and I saw God come through in an incredible, miraculous way that gave Himself all the glory that He totally deserves!

*Side Note --- We were all VERY JEALOUS of Anna who just happened to be at Abi's house when she went into labor, and got to witness the birth of the lil' man!;) She said it was incredible!:) *

The Lord emphasized this verse to my heart through Asher's birth--

Isaiah 61:3

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

It is incredible to me how God takes the ashes in our lives and turns them into beauty when we let Him! It is incredible how He takes the situations we are most fearful of and turns them into God glorifying situations when we surrender them to Him!

I am SO THANKFUL for what God did in bringing little Asher into the world! He did SO MUCH more than just proving Himself strong to Josiah and Abi and increasing their faith...He drew me back into His loving arms and revealed His incredible faithfulness and perfect love to me! As I've sought Him more fervrently after the birth of my little nephew I have found Him COMPLETELY faithful in my life on a day to day basis! If you have ashes in your life that you think are just to ugly and horrible to be forgiven take them to the Lord and lay them at His feet...He has a way of making something unspeakably beautiful out of them!

Psalm 9: 9-10
The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.
10And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.

Let us seek Him wholeheartedly...for He does NOT forsake those who seek Him!