Pray, Mommy, Pray

It was 3:10 a.m.

Eighteen-month-old “Beatrix” (our middle child with big brown eyes) had been awake since 12:30 a.m. We had changed her, rocked her, and fed her almost a half-gallon of milk one bottle at a time; she refused to sleep. We left her in her crib; she cried for an hour. We took her into our bed; cuddles turned into identifying parental facial anatomy with pointy fingers. Desperate, I was doing the bedtime routine one more time. Beatrix was on my lap, bottle in mouth and precious bunny in hand, quiet as we rocked. Then she took her bottle out of her mouth, looked at me, and said one word. 

“Pray.”

It was easy to remember to pray over my children during pregnancy. In that situation, I realized my lack of control. Sure, I could eat, sleep, drink, exercise, and go to my check-ups, but I couldn’t will the child inside of me to live and grow. I was in a position of complete dependence on God as the Giver and Sustainer of all things. When the fears came, when stories of miscarriage were told, when I heard of complications, all I could do was pray. Then the baby was born, and I got busy.

Somehow, when baby comes out into the world where we can see and hold it, we tend to forget about prayer. When the baby fusses, we check off a list of possible causes. When baby gets sick, we stay awake all night to make sure they breathe. When baby won’t sleep, we get annoyed. When baby seems late to achieve a milestone, we call mommy friends for advice. So often in in our caring and doing, we forget the most important thing: prayer. Although a child outside the womb keeps us busier, the child’s change in location has not changed our limited abilities to keep the child alive. We are still completely dependent on God for each breath.

The good news: we serve a God who is happy to hear our prayers and to answer us (Psalm 34:15). Our prayers are not bothersome to Him. Rather, as the apostle Peter encourages us, we are to cast “all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7, emphasis added). He cares. As we seek to care for our families, we should do it in prayerful dependence on Him. And as we pray, we should be strengthened by remembering what this God we pray to is like... 

He is Creator. “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.” (Psalm 139:13-15)

He is wise. "Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure." (Psalm 147:5)

 He is mighty. "Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you." (Jeremiah 32:17)

He is provider. “Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” (Psalm 34:9-10) “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” (1 Corinthians 9:8)

He is never-tiring. “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.” (Isaiah 40:28-29)

He is sovereign. “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139:16)

He is compassionate. "As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." (Psalm 103:13-14)

He is attentive. “[K]now that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.” (Psalm 4:3)

He is a refuge. “On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” (Psalm 62:7-8)

 

He is faithful. “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6) 

After Beatrix finished her bottle, I prayed over her and put her in her crib—where she slept peacefully the rest of the night.

That night, God answered our prayers with sleep, but He didn’t always answer our prayers with sleep. Sometimes we were awake all night. Sometimes instead of sleep He sent helpers to get us through the next day, naps when we needed the sleep, or just strength beyond our strength to keep going when we didn’t think we could. His answers are not always what we ask for, but He always answers, and in ways that are good for us. 

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7-11) 

Pray. When the days are good or the nights are hard, pray. When baby fusses or toddler asks one more question, pray. When you don’t know what to do, pray. Pray, mommy, pray.

“[D]o not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)