"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;" --Isaiah 49:15-16
Prayer has become an unintentional focus for me these days. I got a book for Christmas called "Praying the Scriptures for Your Children" (which I highly recommend!). From a different angle, Justin and I are part of a small group that is currently going through Philip Yancey's book "Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?" It's interesting how prayer and sacrifice go together. It seems to be the link that taps us in to our power source so we can continue to sacrifice for our families.
Yancey suggests in his book that a mother's unconditional love for her children mimics God's love for us. "I think of the way mothers dote on their infants, who offer so little in return. Every sneeze, every turn of the head and dart of the eyes, every whimper and smile the mother scrutinizes as if studying for a test on infantile behavior. If a human mother responds with such absorbing love, how much more so God," he writes. Adults, on the other hand, mirror infants in relation to God. Babies are utterly helpless. Yes, eventually they grow into independence, but they need their parents desperately for the early stages of life. In contrast, we never outgrow our dependence on the Lord. We may lose sight of it temporarily, but we kid ourselves when we try to live independently of Him.
Our children require us to sacrifice much. To quote Jeanette from her comment, "Motherhood presents opportunities to die to self in a thousand ways every day... it kind of gives our selflessness muscle a daily workout. And God sees every bit of it." It is hard sometimes to see the spiritual realm, especially if our house is messy or our baby is crying! But keeping that unseen world at the forefront of our minds gives us hope and reminds us that we can't do it on our own. We are helpless and needy for the God who delights in meeting our every need. Prayer puts God in His rightful position in our lives--our Creator, Sustainer, Provider. It is comforting to know that just because I don't sense His presence one day, He is no less present. We are engraved on the palms of His hands. You can't get much closer than that!
4 comments:
Oh I just loved that comment about being selfless. I am learning everyday that is an area in my life I need work on. I never really thought of myself as selfish - but I have been seeing that in myself at times. I see it when I want to check my email and Elijah wants my attention - I get upset that he won't let me do SOMETHING for myself for 5 minutes!! I play with him every second he is awake and sometimes feel like I need my time.
I know we all need out time - but Elijah needs my time more. Prayer is the only thing that gets me through some days - when I get frusterated or upset because Elijah is cranky - prayer works...I just need to do it more often!
seems like my "selflessness muscle" has been getting a new workout. don't they say when you build your muscles you're actually tearing them to re-build them? anyways it's been extra rough the last few days not feeling well and trying to take care of corrie. when you're sick all you want to do is just stay in bed and feel bad but that doesn't always work when you're a mom... smile.
but i just wanted to say thanks to everyone for their thoughts on sacrifice and serving. although it's not easy, these thoughts and ideas help me see past how i'm feeling during the day to be able to take care of her. (although brian still gets to hear how my throat hurts and all my complaints...smile.) we're like work-out buddies everyone!
also i'm learning the daily (hourly, minute by minute) need to invite God into my day.
God has been teaching me this exact thing this week. You'd think I would have learned it by now but having a second child makes me see how sinful and selfish I am in new ways. I read today where Paul said to run in such a way as to win and I realized I need this attitude in parenting. Sometimes the steps hurt and I feel like I can't even walk but if I want to win for the Lord and my children then I have to keep on running. Sometimes it's difficult but thinking about how my race effects my children motivates me.
I appreciate the way your blog and everyone's comments are reminding me to pray for Taylor. It's such an important thing to do, but I'm amazed how I've neglected to pray for her specifically. A speaker at a MOPS meeting I went to this week told about how her daughter and son-in-law have prayed over their children each night - they called it "tuck-in time", I think. This was different than asking the child to say her prayers, but was actually a time that the parents went before God in prayer for their child - outloud for the child to hear as well. The kids are growing up now, and they continue the practice. Anyway, with Taylor being so young, it had never occurred to me to pray that way for her. I did tonight, and she even calmed down and went to sleep as I prayed. I don't expect God to necessarily take all the pains out of bedtime for us that way every night, but even if she had kept screaming I would have felt immensely better knealing there talking with God about it. Anyway, thanks for reminding me each time I check this site how important it is for me and for Taylor that I continue to be in prayer.
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