Did you know that St. Augustine , renowned early church theologian and thinker, partly credited his acceptance of Christ to his Mother's prayers? "What does that have to do with a picture of your soon to arrive baby's nursery," you may ask? With the next month or so will come the start of many new things: the birth of our baby, parenthood, job changes, greater focus on our Wycliffe ministry. We are so excited by every single one of these events. They are life-changing and great privileges. Yet, this is a moment in life where we stop and weigh our present and future responsibilities. In doing that, the biggest realization is that to anticipate the coming of parenthood is to gaze upon a piercing and eternal specter. The Pieces Reading The Confessions of St. Augustine has been an unexpected encouragement to the coming task of parenthood. The world was very different at St. Augustine's birth in AD 354 than it is in AD 2018. Nonetheless, Christian family lif