Tag Archive | baby

For This Child I Prayed

Feb12

1 Samuel 1:27 – I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. (NIV)

Today is my sweet baby boy’s birthday.  He is 35, but he’ll always be my baby!  Celebrating his birthday brings up memories of his birth-day and other days as well.  At that time you took the pregnancy test in the doctor’s office, and I can remember waiting anxiously and excitedly for the results.  When the nurse announced “positive”, I went straight to my husband’s office because I just couldn’t wait for him to get home that afternoon to tell him the happy news. Because of injuries I had sustained in a car accident before we were married, the doctor had told us that I would have difficulty conceiving and carrying a baby to term, so this was indeed happy news!  It still makes me smile to think about telling our parents and grandparents.  When I told my grandmother, she gave me a quilt that she had made in advance for her first great-grandchild.  That quilt was the centerpiece of our nursery and is now on our granddaughter’s bed.  I was so excited to be pregnant that I would wear maternity tops over my regular pants!  In the hours before his birth, I taught kindergarten on Friday, shopped all day Saturday, went to church Sunday morning then had friends over for dinner and a movie Sunday night.  I went to the hospital in the early hours of Monday morning.  We were the first people at our hospital to do Lamaze so it was an interesting few hours (the nurse thought I was hyperventilating), but by 7:30 that morning I was holding myBabyShay baby boy – 28 days before his due date!  When we called people to tell them about the baby, no one believed us.  My principal told me to stop being silly and get myself to work!  My granny squealed, “I knew it was a boy.”  When reminded that she had been saying “girl” all along, she immediately replied, “well, I knew it was one or the other.”  When we called my parents, my dad was on the far side of the farm feeding the cows.  My mom got so excited that she walked through the snow to find him and they both walked back to the house, leaving the tractor sitting in the pasture!  Our son had infantile asthma, and there were times of getting in the crib with him so he would not be afraid under the croup tent, sleeping on the floor beside his bed so we could hear him breathe, and holding him so the medicated mist could blow in his face.  We prayed for him and over him daily from before he was even born and have seen so many prayers answered.  We have prayed petitions; we have prayed praises: we have prayed scripture. When he was a little boy, we started praying for the unknown little girl that would one day be his wife.  The first time we met that special young lady, my husband and I both knew that prayer had been answered as well.  We have seen this sweet baby boy grow into a strong Godly man, husband, and father. Like Hannah, I can say “I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted what I asked of Him”.

What About When God Has It Wrong?

Sep29

2 Peter 1:4 – Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the devine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (NIV)

Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares The Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (NIV)

As I’m drinking my coffee and reading my Bible, I begin to think about Abraham and Isaac going up the mountain. We focus so much on Abraham and Isaac in that story that we forget about Sarah. Where was she when Abraham was planning the trip up the mountain?  What was she doing when Abraham was preparing everything for the journey?  Scripture tells us that Sarah was not what we would call a passive woman, and she had waited too long and been through too much to sit calmly while her baby went marching up that mountain with sticks on his back!  I know there is discussion about Isaac’s true age, but I also know age doesn’t matter to a mom — that was her baby!  Sarah had endured too many months of crushing disappointment while waiting for that baby boy.   She had danced through weeks of great joy thinking “this is it!!  She had sobbed beyond control when the proof came that she was wrong. She had perfected the plastic smile as she sat through her friend’s baby showers. She knew how to mask her longings as she listened to her friends complain about the sleepless nights with an infant, the “terrible twos”, the woes of raising a teenager, and the stresses of planning a wedding.  Then she had to paste on a smile again as those same friends celebrated the births of grandchildren while she was still waiting for a child of her own.  I sincerely believe that Sarah would have stopped Abraham from taking Isaac on the last leg of that particular journey.  She would have stopped Your plans and Your promise.  I begin to wonder how many times I have stopped Your plans in my life. How many times have I put what I thought was best ahead of what You knew was best?  2 Peter 1:4 says that You have given us great and precious promises that allow us to share in Your divine nature and escape the corruption caused by our selfish desires. Jeremiah 29:11 tells me that Your plans are always good for me. Lord, please forgive me for trying to block Your blessings in my life.  I know that my desires are selfish. I know that my plans are very shortsighted.  I know that You give me great and precious promises. Lord, I want to stand on those promises, not stand in the way of them. I want to be like Abraham with an attitude of “I don’t understand, but God said to do it so I know He will take care of it.” (Genesis 22).