Tag: Fatherhood

Since we all have experienced different types of fathers (or the absence thereof), the first question we need to ask is, “What kind of father is God?” I think for many people, “Judge” is the prevailing name for God. God is just up there waiting for you to screw up and then He’s gonna smite […]

We have three boys, each with a unique given name. Our oldest son is named Justus. We had his name picked out before my wife, Heidi, and I were even married. But when the moment of truth came 6 years later, we flinched and Justus was almost “Caleb.” But we swallowed hard and stuck to our guns, not knowing what others would think. Not that it matters, but the response was overwhelmingly positive. We’ve received many compliments on his name over the years. Little did we know that we were trendsetters. Justus is ever-growing in popularity as both a boy’s and girl’s name.

We wanted to continue giving our kid’s virtuous names, but we had trouble coming up with virtuous names for boys. We had a whole list of them for girls, but we had to have three boys. When our second son was born, we gave him the name “Tranquil.” I called my mother-in-law to give her the good news and tell her the name.

“What?” She responded.

“Tranquil,” I said again.

Long pause.

Then breaking the silence, “What are you going to call him?”

“Tranquil,” I said a third time.

“Yeah, I know,” she said, “but what are you going to call him?”

Again I responded, “Tranquil.”

Twelve years later we still get often get that response from people.

Continue reading “A Father after God’s Own Heart (Part 1)”