The Anchor for my Soul

I recently wrote the following for my sister's baby shower, and it was well received.  Turns out we all need people in our lives to share their experiences, so we know that we are not alone, and that we are not crazy. So if you are a new parent, a veteran parent, a grandparent or someone who wants to have kids someday, read about my anchor. 

"Psalm 139:13-15 (NIV) says

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful; I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

So.  This starts to change my thinking.  When I had a pregnancy, a baby who was seemingly out of place in the order of the life that was imagined for me by men, God led me to this verse, and praying it over my children has been balm for this mother’s soul.  I believe in a God who makes every person, with purpose and with intention, with mind-blowing creativity, and with an attention to detail that brings me to my knees.  And we have this intentional, creative God who creates us, but he doesn’t end there – creation is just the beginning.

    Take some time, mom, dad, to marvel at the creation of your child.  Not only in this miraculous, and bizarre and gross thing called pregnancy, labor and delivery, but when he gets here – his little fingers and toes, his little froggie legs, and the amazing way that God weaves together chromosomes, DNA and mom and dad’s traits.  It will amaze you, to see not only what he looks like, and then he’ll grow a little bit, and you’ll see your husband’s smile, or maybe some little feet that walk on tiptoe. 

   And this purpose, this intention that God has for him,  makes us thankful, and it also makes us terrified.  But the good thing for us, is that we not only have a God who is an amazing creative artist, but He is also kind, and good;  the strength of our hearts and the lifter of our heads.

Hebrews 13:6-8 quotes the Old Testament, and says

“Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord my helper; I will not be afraid, What can man do to me?”

  Let me tell you what that little man (or your little woman) will do to you.  He will capture your heart, and then he will puke on you. And you’ll think its cute.  He will step on your toes, slap your face, pull your earrings out of your ears, splash you at the most inopportune times, ruin your clothes, makeup and DVD collection, pull your hair, poke you in the eye, destroy your house, and most likely terrorize the cat.  And you’ll laugh and call us to tell us all about him, and how cute he is. 

      And then he will grow a little, and he will go through phases and seasons that are adorable, and phases that exasperate you.  There will be times when you delight in his darling phrases and when you see your parenting strategies working, and you feel satisfied in the good work you are doing.  And there will be nights when he won’t sleep, and you don’t know what to do, and you worry about calling someone so late to ask for advice. And there will be times when you go out in public and he has the biggest blow outs and you will feel stress you have never felt before, because there is just so. much. poop.

    And there will be nights when you and your husband or wife go to bed laughing and recounting the days adventures, and there will be nights when you both fall asleep and feel completely lost because he is doing something that none of the books explain, if you even had time to read them, and you feel like a failure, and you’re sure he’ll probably end up in a padded room somewhere,…or you’re thinking about installing one of your own.  But the Lord is your helper.  What can little man do to you?

      So if I continue with the Hebrews verse, 13: 7 says, “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you.  Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today & forever." 

     In our challenges, in our charge to raise a human – the literature will change, the bloggers will write, the authors will publish, your mother will call, his mother will call – and some of their advice will be solid, and some of it will be nonsense…it’s ever changing.  But Jesus doesn’t change.  And while he might not have written a book about how to best change diapers, and which products to buy, He will put his HOPE in you that will make you get up and enjoy your children with a grateful, amazed heart, and worry less about the unnecessary details, because your eyes are fixed on this big eternal picture of your child's life.

     God will put people in your life, you will know them by “the outcome of their way  of life” to show you the way.  And Jesus, with his still small voice,  will be there, a solid UNCHANGING lifeline. Take the time, and the quiet, to listen to him. 

         When I started thinking about my sister's nautical themed nursery and how my fellow hostesses and I would plan this shower, I kept hearing a Michael W. Smith song on the radio called You Won’t Let Go.  The verse says, “My heart remains, sure in the wind, sure in the waves. You are the anchor for my soul, you won’t let go.”

Likewise, Hebrews 6:17-19 is talking about the certainty of the promise of God.  Paul writes to his own people – the Jews, to assure them that what God is doing, and the hope he is offering is the real deal.  He says,

17 Because God wanted to make the UNCHANGEABLE nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18God did this so that, by two UNCHANGEABLE things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.

19We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.  It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.

      
      So not only will God create your baby the exact way he wants to, and weave his life exactly the way he wants to, He will also offer a hope to you, and to those of us who will get to help you raise him.  A hope that is unwavering in any storm – this hope that is an anchor for our soul, that He is with us, that He is doing this on purpose, and that He will meet your every need, and equip you will everything you need to be a mom to Baby Boy.

Thank you God, for who you are, for what you do, for what you make out of our messes.  Thank you for my three sons, for the moms you've put in my path to show me the way, for the moms you've put in my path for me to encourage.

Can't wait for my nephew to get here! Come baby boy, come! But not until August.