Social media hasn’t necessarily helped this situation, but rather has provided people with a type of platform to be able to share their thoughts and feelings about anything almost instantaneously with the rest of the world. With instant access to people’s shared thoughts and feelings constantly throughout the day, you have to have a plan in place in order to process the barrage of opinions that we are confronted by day in and day out.

This thought became a source of laughter for me the other day while I was talking with a dear friend who is like a brother to me. He asked if we were excited to find out what our baby’s gender was soon. My wife is pregnant, and we are expecting in April. This is amazing, especially since our hearts over the summer had to bear the loss of another pregnancy that we were blessed with.

I say that it made me laugh because I have had many interactions over the past couple of months in our local community with a variety of people and somewhere in the course of the conversation the question always comes up, “Do you have any kids?” To which I always respond, “Yes, yes I do…I have 4.” You see, we currently have 2 girls and 2 boys, ages ranging from 10 down to 20 months. And usually, after they gasp at the thought of having kids that are 10, 8, 5, and 20 months, I love to roll right on in there that we are expecting another baby in April. The sheer shock on some faces and sheer terror on others! Ha! (For real though)

Typically, there are always several jokes about the stress that we must be under or the way that our finances and lifestyle must take a severe hit in order to accommodate a family of our size. People are usually kind and finish off with some kind of comment like, “God bless you guys!” I know that they mean well and I never take any of it personal, but rather I am just so used to it that I go right along with all of the jokes. However, at the end somewhere I always make sure that they know that we are believers and have committed our lives to Jesus and being responsible with His voice in our lives. Here’s where things take a little bit of a shift.

I just turned 39. According to the opinion of our culture, my wife and I should be past this stage in life. We should be leaning in towards the apex of our career, the prime of our life. It is usually around this time in life that people are peaking with all of their dreams and vision in life. And, because of this thought process, the thought of a child, and especially a newborn, can easily be viewed as a disruption to all of our “plans” and the success of those “plans.”

Our lives as believers are not supposed to be defined by our culture. The opinion of the world around us is not what is supposed to provide us with vision. The overall success of our lives is found in being responsible with the voice of Jesus. We are a people that have intimacy with Him, and through intimate fellowship, we know His voice and what He is saying to our hearts. This is where our definition and motivation come from. Herein is where we find what “success” looks like for us. We could clear it up this way…if you would like to know what success looks like for your life, what is Jesus saying to you? And how responsible are you being with that?

My wife and I really felt like the Lord spoke to us about another baby. We spent a season praying and fasting and really trying to dial into the voice of the Lord and get clarity. And, after coming through that we had a restful confidence that this is what the Lord was saying to us. The challenge is always found in moments where you have to make decisions based on what you know the Lord is saying. Again, our culture and the world around us has tons of opinions. But, at the end of our life, there is only going to be one opinion that really matters, I promise you that.

You’re “Well done, good and faithful servant,” is not going to be given to you based on the way that you diligently sought after creating the life for yourself that our culture says that you’re supposed to have. Success in life is not found in obeying our culture, it’s found in obeying Jesus. This is why it is a great need for us to be able to distinguish His voice from all of the other voices that are speaking day by day. Jesus said, “My sheep listen to My voice, I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27) In another place, He said that those that obey Him are the ones that truly love Him. (John 14:15)

Let’s make it a little more real. In the day that we are living, there are a lot of opinions as to what we should be doing. Conversations have escalated throughout our culture on a variety of topics. We are living in a moment that is being dominated by images and emotions. And these images, emotions, narratives, and opinions are seeking to influence your story.

We need to be reminded, being faithful to Jesus is what defines our lives. I would suggest fasting and praying and really dialing into His voice. If you lack clarity, fast and pray. If you lack confidence, fast and pray. If you lack closeness, fast and pray.

I am praying that He would give you the grace to obey Him.