"Spirit of Battle"

“O mothers of young children, I bow before you in reverence. Your work is most holy. You are fashioning the destinies of immortal souls. The powers folded up in the little ones that you hushed to sleep in your bosoms last night are powers that shall exist forever. You are preparing them for their immortal destiny and influence...” Home-Making, J.R. Miller, pg. 106

The other day I was thinking about some of the meanings behind our names and I was reminded of what Caden’s name means and the main reason we had chosen it for him. Caden essentially means “Spirit of Battle”. Quite fitting for a boy and it equally sums up what I believe is going on every day. Spiritual warfare is all around us and when we were searching for his name I wanted it to reflect something Godly but untraditionally. I truly felt that our son’s name needed to be a constant reminder of what we are on this earth fighting for. We can get so caught up in the little things, so discouraged by life’s circumstances that we forget to keep strong in the Lord and to proclaim what He has done and IS doing for us.

This actually reminds me of a post my cousin did about boys and their natural born instinct to be warriors and its connection to God. You can read the post here: http://growntoglory.wordpress.com/2009/01/23/warrior-son/

I agree whole-heartedly with everything she said. Even at the young age of 2, Caden already shows a willingness to be a warrior – not in a bad sense of course – but you can see it in his eyes when he’s determined to fight through all of life’s obstacles. There is something so cool and refreshing about the fact that God has molded little boys (who will one day be men) to have such a protective and courageous nature. Now our challenge as parents is to help encourage that nature and show them how and when to use it appropriately.

I pray that when Caden is older he too will think about the meaning behind his name and be reminded of the unseen battle God is fighting on our behalf and hopefully on that day Caden will make a choice to join it!