HIS NAME IS HARVEST

Harvest Benjamin... the sweetest baby boy that has ever lived <3

I cannot believe this boy is almost six months old already. And, my goodness, he is simply amazing. I've never met a child that smiles as much or gives as many kisses. He loves meeting new people, he laughs out loud at videos of himself, he doesn't care much for baths, he blows raspberries at least once an hour, he thinks it's hilarious when I put my hair up and when I stick my tongue out at him, he loves to eat his big boy food and he doesn't like to sit still for much more than a few minutes. He's an active, happy, strong and sweet boy, and if you can't already tell, I'm smitten.

Naturally, when strangers at the supermarket or JoAnn's catch a glimpse of his big, blue eyes, they're smitten too. When I introduce his as Harvest, I often get questions on where we came up with his name. He goes by Harvey, too, so sometimes I'll also get asked if he was named after Steve Harvey or Harvey Dent. Ha... I barely even know who those people are. So, no. He's not named after anyone. We call him Harvey because it's a cute nickname for Harvest. And his name is Harvest because it personifies one of our greatest prayers for his life.

Allow me to explain...

While little Harv was still a gummy bear in my tummy, his dad and I began to pray specifically over the strengths and character the Lord would one day bless him with. What kept coming to mind as we prayed was a desire for him to have the gift of evangelism.
I think evangelism is a word that sometimes has a negative connotation in the Christian world, and non-Christian world for that matter. When I say evangelism I'm not saying "the guy yelling from the corner that the passerby's are destined for hell" and I'm not saying "the guy who uncomfortably approaches strangers at parties with the sole purpose of striking conversation to convince them to Christ." I'm not totally knocking those guys, but to be clear, those aren't the guys I'm specifically referring to. Harvest as an evangelist, to Ben and I, simply equals a guy who is gifted at bringing people to Christ.
I'm not overly concerned about how he does it, but my prayer is just that he would be wise at it, that it would be natural and that his strength would lie in his ability to be so much like Christ that people can't help but see Jesus in who he is. And from that, he would have the boldness to pursue people's hearts and bring them into the family of the Lord.

I can't think about a harvest without thinking about Matthew 9. So, when we stumbled across Harvest as a possible baby name, it seemed too perfect.

Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
-Matthew 9:37-38

What Jesus is essentially saying to his disciples here is, "Hey guys, there are a ton of people out there who need to know me and not very many people telling them. So ask our Father to raise up some more guys who will go out into the world and tell these people the good news about me!"

So that's what we're believing for our boy and continue to pray over his life. We're asking the Lord to grow him up to be a diligent worker of the harvest, with gifts that would allow him to reap fields of believers for the Lord.

I'm glad to have the reminder of why we named him what we did each time I introduce him. I think I need it. I sure as heck can use any reminder of what it is our lives as Christians are all about. And don't we all? We are placed in the middle of fields ripe for picking every day and we still sometimes forget what we're doing here.
I pray we, as believers, can grow in our ability to recognize opportunities given by the Lord, to have wisdom to act as Christ would in those situations and to be blessed by seeing numbers added to the Kingdom of God daily. Yes and amen!