“We waste our lives when we do not pray and think and dream and plan and work toward magnifying God in all spheres of life.”
— Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper
New life is all around. Several friends and colleagues have welcomed new children recently. Their routines are upended by nighttime feedings and dirty diapers. They are reaching different levels of exhaustion and performing tasks with seemingly half the brain cells they had before this newborn arrived. And it’s beautiful.
God didn’t have to create us. Why would He? Why would He offer freewill? He already was and is God. We’re not needed. This thought may be outside theology, but maybe He created the desire for us to have children because you find a different understanding of love when you have a child. He wants us to know what that feels like, and I thank Him for that. And those loves closest to us and can hurt us the most, but we still try.
I started this entry with a John Piper quote. The older I get, the more I think about life from the inside out and living with purpose. I have to change, and can only do so through God’s grace, before I can be aligned with the Holy Spirit to impact the world around me. I fail daily, but I keep trying.
Tonight, Lord, I pray for this community. I pray for new parents that are struggling to adjust to a life beyond themselves. I pray for strength and endurance for those days and nights when they feel they have nothing left to give. We lift up labor and delivery nurses at Germantown Baptist, Methodist, Regional One, and St. Francis who guide new mothers and calm anxious fathers. We pray for those doctors, OB/GYNs, NICU nurses, and other medical staff trained in caring for new lives, that you grant them wisdom, courage, and skill.
We thank you Lord, for getting a taste of Your love through our own parenthood. May we love our children and raise them up in Christ. We pray for youth that don’t have the support at home that fellow Christians may be positive influences on their life. We pray for parents struggling with their own issues, that they seek you and find help. Lord, if we live life only for ourselves, what’s the point? May we seek to love one another and form a new Jerusalem today. In Your name, Amen