The Naming of Stirring Affections

What started as The Vaughans, a personal blog to keep out of town family connected, has evolved into Stirring Affections! Picking an official title for the blog felt like so much pressure. Yet I believed if God was leading me to invest more time here sharing resources and encouragement for discipleship in the home then He would clarify the vision with a name. 

Since the beginning in the garden, God has cared about naming. Naming gives meaning and identity. Every name in scripture has a meaning that tells us something about that person's relationship with God. 

Stirring Affections is about desiring for my children to have an intimate relationship with Christ. It's about cultivating a discipleship relationship that is more formative than informative, that's more about what we love than just what we know.

Stirring Affections is about discipling our children in a way that awakens their hearts and minds to the wonder and beauty of the gospel. 


In 2 Peter chapter one, verse 13 the apostle writes,

"I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder..."

The Greek word for "stir up" means to wake up, awaken, arouse from sleep. 

John Piper writes in The Dawning of Indestructible Joy,

"[Peter] is writing to 'awaken' or 'stir up' his readers so that they don't just know but also feel the wonder of the truth."

Isn't that beautiful... to feel the wonder of the truth?

I want our home to be a place where we feel the wonder of the truth.

As I reflected on this word "stir up" or "awaken," my own thoughts were reminded of the poetic words spoken by Lucy Pevensie in Prince Caspian. (We're big Narnia fans around here!)

"Oh, Trees, Trees, Trees," said Lucy (though she had not been intending to speak at all). "Oh, Trees, wake, wake, wake. Don't you remember it? Don't you remember me? ... Though there was not a breath of wind they all stirred about her. The rustling noise of the leaves was almost like words. The nightingale stopped singing as if to listen to it. "

 

I imagined the rustling leaves of a tree stirring or awakening to the wonder of the gospel like the trees in Narnia at the thought of Aslan and Narnia as it was meant to be.

As my thoughts focused on 1 Peter, I found myself asking what is it that Paul wants to stir up in us by way of reminder.

My first inclination is to go to the list in verses 5-7 so that I can get something to check off... faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. 

But Paul lays a foundational runway for us in the preceding verses.

"...through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature..."

What does Paul want to stir up in us first by way of reminder? The Gospel 

In His death we have forgiveness of sins. 
And in his resurrection we receive a new life, new affections. 

NOW, I'm ready to look at the list again in light of the gospel.

I want those qualities in my life and for my children. But sanctification is a long path; it's a slow day by day process for me and them. Often the path feels hard and dry. What has happened when discipleship becomes more like a duty than a delight? When my own heart is lacking the very qualities I want to foster in my children?

"For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

How quickly I become nearsighted in the daily, mundane tasks of motherhood. I lose sight of the big picture.

I forget how I was cleansed from my sin, and I lose my wonder of the gospel.

Though I may forget, He has not forgotten me, and His Spirit reminds me of the sweetness of His grace, the goodness of His mercy, and the wonder of the gospel, stirring my affections for Christ, deepening my love for Him, and renewing my desire to grow in faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. 

This is the atmosphere within which I long to disciple my children, not merely placing Gospel truths before their eyes, but planting Gospel seeds in their hearts. I don't want them to simply learn the stories of the Bible; I want them to feel the wonder of its Truth.

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Unknowingly my husband and I were both studying 2 Peter 1. I came undone with excitement when I found out God had lead him to the same passage. Hearing him process his sermon preparation opened my eyes afresh to why God had placed "Stirring Affections" on my heart.  For a much more eloquent and theological unpacking of 2 Peter 1 and passionate preaching of the gospel listen to Stirred Afresh by Remembering the Gospel.