Devotional for Baby Shower
for Elisha Smith Fernandez
I remember looking at my
first baby and thinking -” I will raise him in my home for at least
18 years!” It seemed like such a loooong time! Meanwhile everyone
was saying that the time would go quickly! And how right they were!
As the song goes, “Turn around, turn around, turn around and you're
a young girl (or boy) going out of the door.”
What do we want our child to
be like when he “goes out of the door?”
God has given each of us
mothers a special privilege and opportunity to raise and mold our
child - our baby.
It is a wonderful
opportunity, an awesome privilege, and a grave and great
responsibility.
What do we want as the end
result?
In our Mary Kay business,
and any business for that matter, the company or the business owner,
sets goals. What are my goals for this year, quarter, month, week?
How much do I want to sell? How many appointments do I need to sell
that? Do I want to work for a car? To be a director? Earn a trip?
As a teacher, we think, "what
do we want our students to learn by the end of the year, the
semester, the month, week, etc." It is called Student Learning Outcomes. (SLO)
Nothing happens by accident.
If we don't have a plan, we plan to fail.
Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train
up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not
depart from it.”
Now this isn't a promise.
Proverbs are pithy sayings, words of wisdom, general principles to
follow.
If you train a child in the
direction he should be going - then he will stick with it, even when
he is old - a young adult “going out of the door.”
So what is the direction he
should be going? What is the end result you want? I am sure it is the
same as mine was - to have my child grow into an adult who “loves
the Lord his God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all
his mind, and who loves his neighbor as himself. (Mtt. 22:37-39)
Jesus said those were the greatest commandments.
I wanted my children to know
God personally, to first have Jesus as their Savior, and then to
follow Him and love Him, and not depart from Him ever. I wanted them
not to just say, “I believe because that is what my parents taught
me,” but to know for themselves that God was real, that He cared
for them and loved them. To experience Him for themselves.
We know with training dogs
or animals, it takes consistency along with love and encouragement.
Same with children. But with children there is more - they need the
example.
We teach by our example how
we are to live and to love. Our children will follow what we do, and
our subtle attitudes, even more than what we say to them.
Are we in fellowship with
other Christians by going to church and Bible Study?
Do we read our Bible daily?
Do we pray consistently -
without ceasing?
Are we serving with our
gifts and talents?
The three most important
things I personally believe we need to do are:
1. Read the Word of God to
your child. It is “active and alive, sharper than a two edged
sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and
marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Heb.
4:12) The Word of God does not return void (Isaiah 55:11). It will
never pass away (Mtt.24:35).
With my baby, Nathan, I read
the Bible out loud to him while I was nursing him. Oh well if he
didn't understand then, I figured I would start young telling him
about Jesus, never knowing that he would see Jesus before I would. I can honestly say that all my children, even my newborn were taught about Jesus and had Scripture read to them.
2. Pray, Pray, and Pray. The
enemy prowls around looking for someone to devour. He seeks to steal,
kill, and destroy (John 10:10). The only way to fight back is with
the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, and prayer in the
powerful name of Jesus.
Pray Scripture over your
child. Just this week I prayed Ephesians1:18 and Ephesians 3:16-19
for each of my children. That they "would be strengthened with power
in their inner being" and they"would be rooted and established in love"and they "would have power to grasp how high and deep is the love of
Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that they may
be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God". Tomorrow I will
pray Ephesians 6:10 and following, that they "would be strong in the
Lord and in His mighty power."
For my son and sons in law I
pray Acts 6:3, 8 that they would be like Stephen and the early church
elders - "full of the Spirit and wisdom," "full of faith and the Holy
Spirit," and "full of God's grace and power."
With that, let's pray for
little Henry to be just that kind of man when “goes out of the door”
and for Elisha to have the wisdom, strength, and power she needs to
raise him to be God's man full of of faith and the Holy Spirit.
