Wake up, I'm pregnant!

I woke up my husband from Sunday afternoon nap with that statement on this date, one year ago today. It is pretty incredible that I have been a mama for a year now. My world changed on July 29, 2007 and I am so grateful for the amazing blessing God has given us.

On another note, had I known how precious those Sunday afternoon naps would become I would have let him sleep a little longer!

Baby Dedication

Today was a really special morning. We had our son dedicated at church along with our friends and their little boys. It is our understanding in Scripture that the dedication of an infant is not for their salvation. That is a decision that I pray he will mcaake one day and until he is able to understand his need for salvation, he is under God’s protection. Instead, it was a ceremony of commitment. It was a public commitment from my husband and me to raise our son under the leadership of God. It is also a time for our church family to commit to join with us in praying for our son and supporting us as we strive to be Godly parents. A special moment in the service came when our church family surrounded us as we were prayed for.

Being a mother is the most important job I will ever have. It is the hardest job and, at the same time, the most rewarding one. Just the responsibility of making sure he is physically cared for, developing well and happy is full time and tiring work. But I am not called to just meeting those needs. The most important part of my job as a mama is to lead my little boy to know God.

How do I do this? Of course I have the task of teaching him. I will read to him from the Bible, sing songs about God and teach him that the trees he loves to look at were created by God. I will tell him how much God loves him and teach him that he can talk to God and that God wants a relationship with him. All of those messages will mean very little though if my life does not reflect what I teach. My son will watch everything that I do and it is my prayer that my life reflects the Lord in such a way that my son will want to know God more. He needs to see the joy that comes only from the Lord, not from the world. He doesn’t need to hear from me “don’t worry” as much as he needs to see me trust God in difficult situations. He needs to see me confidently obeying God, even when it is different than what others do so that when he has to resist peer pressure he will have seen my example. He needs to see me reading my Bible and praying on my own so that he will learn the priority of having a personal and growing relationship with God. It is not the responsibility of the church to teach my child about God, it is my husband’s and mine. The church will continue the teaching that we do and provide support and encouragement.

The Israelites were given a clear command in how to raise their children.

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:5-9

What stands out to me in this passage the most is that the teaching of the children is not a formal structure such as a daily family devotional time. While that is a great practice, parents are commanded to teach their children at all times, in all activities. A parent cannot do that if they themselves do not have a growing relationship with God that is reflected in their daily activities.

What a high calling…I know that I personally am not able to do that. I pray that God will use me, in spite of me. I pray that He will equip me in every way necessary to be the parent that my son needs. I pray that I will constantly seek God in order to live a life that glorifies him and that my son will see the Lord in me. And most of all, I pray that my son comes to know the Lord as his savior and is fully sold out to honoring Him.

Back to the Blog World

I have slacked off in my blogging- I guess a baby changes how I spend my time :). I'm going to try to start posting regularly again. I just need to start thinking of topics now!

A Voice Only a Son Could Love

Wow...two blogs in a week! I've done well to get one in a month! He's taking a nap :).

This post is purely because I want to share something that makes me so happy. It is just a mama post, not really for the benefit of anyone else!

My son loves for me to sing! Now, if you have ever heard me you know that I struggle to carry a tune. You also know that I have a husband with a wonderful voice. So, you would think that my son would not enjoy my singing too much, but he does! Sometimes it is the only thing that will get him to stop crying and it will almost always relax him. I love it! I just turn my Ipod on, put one of the earbuds in and start singing along with whatever is playing. Sometimes we dance around, other times it is quiet singing. We both enjoy it! He doesn't even mind when I forget the words, as long as I hum or sing la las.

And in case you're wondering, he prefers David Crowder and Charlie Hall. No real lullabies for this kiddo (I tried, I don't remember the words)!

Wait!!

I have a one month old...actually he is one month and one week. How did that happen? I always heard "they grow up fast" but wow! Not only does his age surprise me but I can look at him and be made fully aware of his rapid growth. I see him daily, all day and even I am surprised to see how much bigger he gets. He was a good sized baby from birth and continues to grow in size and his face matures so quickly.

This has made me stop and reevaluate my attitude. There are many times I have found myself looking to milestones and thinking "I can't wait until he is old enough to..." These early weeks have had me looking forward to the sleeping through the night and less fussy period stages that I read about. But, then I stop and look at my sweet boy curled in my arms and think about how it won't be much longer that I will get to hold him like that. As each new milestone is reached, another stage of his life will pass that we will not experience again.

Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled that he continues to develop so well and want him to continue that progress (and I am definitely looking forward to the sleeping through the night and less fussy stages!). But, I have to remember to enjoy and appreciate the stages he is currently in. Even if that is the "don't put me down" day- because one day I will want so badly to be able to hold him and he'll be off running.

I am a Mama!

I am now officially a mama! I have a new son who is a little over a week old and life as I knew it is completely changed! I have gone from every emotion- from crying in complete frustration to laughing of pure joy at the sweet expression of his face. And all of that was in a span of 5 seconds! I can honestly say that I have not had a lot of time to think much this week. That is a strange thing for someone who likes to stop and ponder the moment. Luckily, my husband brought up something that has remained on my mind and it seems like a good post.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

This is a verse from the Bible that probably everyone is familiar with, whether they go to church or not. The first part of it is what struck my husband and me as we spoke of it. Our son was a few days old when we had this conversation. We are needed to meet every one of his needs and he does not have to do one thing for us. In fact, he takes away some of our needs being met, such as sleep! But, there is nothing in the world we would not do for him, including give our own lives. We would be willing to do whatever it takes to protect him from any kind of pain or harm.

That has given me a new perspective on grace. This verse is probably the first one I learned. I have heard lots of sermons and messages based on it but never really understood the magnitude of “he gave his one and only Son” until now. God chose, for the salvation of us, to allow his son to suffer and die. God also had to turn his back on his son in the midst of all of that anguish. That is about the worst thing I could imagine. How incredible is grace, that God was willing to do that for my life? I could not imagine a greater pain than seeing my son suffer and turning away from him.

When talking about Jesus dying, we often focus on his suffering. I am not downplaying that at all, I am just beginning to understand the absolute sacrifice God made at the same time. It makes me appreciate the incredible gift of salvation in a new way. Right before I had my son a friend, who is a young dad, told my husband and me that he had been a Christian for a long time but never quite understood grace until he became a dad. I was not quite sure at the time what he meant but clearly understand it now.

Lessons from the First Parenting Guide- 1

In the months that I have been pregnant and anticipating being a mama, I have become much more aware of the many lessons in the Bible that relate to parenting. I thought I would share some of them here. I am going to break it into multiple posts so it doesn’t get too long.

First Lesson:
This one was brought on by a blog from one of my good friends about her son and his desire to be like his daddy. My husband and I have talked often about how our son will mimic us or want to do things just because we do them. Will he have our personalities? Will he enjoy music, sports, drawing, reading? What will he quote us on? What will he do just because he saw his daddy doing it?

I am reminded of Philippians 4:9- “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” This is an exhortation from Paul to people who have heard the Gospel from him. He says to them here, and to others in other letters, that they should look to him as an example because he is following after Christ as his example. What a heavy statement to make! I don’t think I could recommend to others to put into practice what they have seen in me. But, I am about to have a little boy that will do just that. It won’t matter to him though whether or not I am imitating Christ because he will imitate me no matter what. It is my responsibility to be consistently modeling a Christ-like life because my son will always be learning from me. My biggest responsibility as a mother is to lead my son towards Christ and the most important way that I will do that is in my character and actions. If I have ever had a reason to seek God’s direction and “be holy as he is holy,” it is now.