A Mother's Prayer

Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your strength.
These commandments that I give you today
are to be upon your hearts.
Impress them on your children.
Talk about them when you sit at home
and when you walk along the road,
when you lie down and when you get up.
Tie them as symbols on your hands
and bind them on your foreheads.
Write them on the doorframes of your houses
and on your gates. ~Deuteronomy 6:5-9

Nathaniel is nine-months-old today. He has grown to be a joyful baby. Every day, when I go to his crib first thing in the morning, he waves his arms and legs in the air in absolute delight. When I put him in the bouncer in our kitchen, he jumps in it gleefully for a good half hour—as I make his breakfast, prepare dinner, do the dishes, etc. The majority of the time, when I put him down for a nap, he lies in his crib without protest. When we go out, having slept well through his naps, he does not wail (like he used to in the earlier months!). He can play on his own for a lot longer too—sitting in the Exersaucer, or on his own, exploring the different toys surrounding him.

At the same time, Nathaniel is beginning to learn how to not give in to my wishes. I see this especially during meal times—breakfast, lunch, and dinner—you might find me sitting by the kitchen table, in front of his high chair, for as long as forty-five minutes, trying to get him to eat the food he’s supposed to eat. At his eight-month checkup, the pediatrician had advised me to introduce the following foods into his diet: meat, yogurt, egg yolk, white fish, and cottage cheese. The only food Nathaniel seems to be willing to eat from this list is yogurt—only because it’s just as tasty as the fruits and vegetables I’ve been feeding him. Most of the time, feeling exasperated, I give up feeding certain foods to him and give him what he likes for fear that he might go hungry during the night. But my actions make me consider whether I am acting in my best interest or Nathaniel’s. (Last night, I tried to force feed him chicken, putting bits of chicken in his mouth even though he was whining—little did I know—I could stuff food in his mouth, but I can’t make him swallow. He began choking when the pieces accumulated in his mouth! And yes, I've tried hiding food he doesn't like in food he likes—for some reason, that doesn't work either...)

Nathaniel can shut his mouth completely when he sees food he doesn’t like approaching his mouth. He can resist my putting him in the high chair or car seat by firmly straightening out his body. He can whine if he is not pleased with any given activity we are engaged in.

As Nathaniel is entering this new stage of his life, I, as a new mother, am also entering a new stage—my becoming anxious about whether I’m making the right decisions on a day-to-day basis. Is what I’m doing today going to somehow impact his behavior in the long run—in a negative or positive way?

Much prayer is needed. That God give me wisdom to make the right choices. It is so needed—because the difference between the wrong decision and the right decision seems so subtle in these rather mundane tasks. Although Nathaniel’s resistant behavior at the moment is minimal in proportion to the many hours of the day that I spend with him—I can’t help but think about the degree of discipline I will soon have to exercise as he grows older. And honestly, if trying to feed him some chicken wears me out—just imagining the work involved in training him in other areas has me letting out a big sigh.

In the hundreds of moments that I interact with Nathaniel, I can easily forget my responsibility as a mother—that is, that which is commanded in Scripture. This means that I have to think twice about giving in to Nathaniel’s wishes simply because I am too tired or because it is just easier to do so. More importantly, down the road, I know it is not merely his behavior that I am trying to affect, but his heart—that he develops a heart that will come to cherish and love the living God. As I heard Rev. Charles Price once mention in a sermon—we can’t force Nathaniel to accept Christianity, but our job as Nathaniel’s parents is to be an example and live godly lives that will make it easy for him to put his faith in Christ. As it is written of the role of the wife and mother in Proverbs 31:

“She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.

She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her.”


When I spend my quiet time with God, I don’t just pray for me and Lee, I pray for all the new parents in my family, my social circle, and my church. All these little tikes running around us will one day, God wiling, have the power to influence this world in a way that either honors or dishonors God. There is enormous weight on our shoulders as parents—and I hope that in these tiny moments we spend with our children, we never forget the task before us.