Baby Shower Encouragement

A friend of mine was sick and couldn't make it to a baby shower for another friend, and she wrote the following letter for her.  It was so encouraging, I just wanted to share it here.

Dear Kylie,

As we anticipate Benjamin’s birth, we are so excited for the precious journey you are beginning. I would like to take a second to tell you that the closeness you are experiencing with him now is going to change. Right now he is safe in you and you know when he moves and when he has hiccups. You are intimately connected. That will change after the miracle of his birth.  Each stage has its blessings and its teaching. Savor them all. 

 As my baby turns 22 this week, I look back at all the joys children can bring into our lives. I think one of the most poignant joys is experiencing the world through their eyes which are full of a sense of wonder at God and His creation. Jesus loves children for this very reason, as we read in Mark 10:13-16.

 ¹³ People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴ When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁵ Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” ¹⁶ And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them. 

They truly are a gift from God. And as with all of God’s gifts, God uses them in our lives for His glory. They are a mission field for mothers, and training ground for practicing selflessness. Your training began early in the pregnancy with morning sickness, but it will continue with lack of sleep, the constant need for feeding, and crying. Your schedule will not be your own for a while. You can work to make his schedule more convenient and more manageable, but the person that you were before the baby is dying to self, and that is good. I am reminded of Jesus, in Philippians 2:3 – 11. 

³ Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; ⁴ do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.⁵ Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸ Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Here is a chance with this newborn babe to practice God’s teaching to look out for the needs and interests of others. At this point Benjamin and Matt will be the big “others” in your life. It won’t always be easy. Sometimes you will be tired and long for a break, a little vacation, a little adult conversation, a little acknowledgement or appreciation. At these times, cast your cares upon the Lord, turn to the Word, cry out in prayer, keep your eyes on the cross. Remember the Gospel. Abide in Christ, as we read in John 15:4-5. 

⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. ⁵ I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. ⁹ Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. ¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. ¹¹ These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.¹² “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are My friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. ¹⁷ This I command you, that you love one another.

There we are again back at loving one another, your husband and your child being among the most important one another’s in your life.