Baby Shower Favor

I was recently asked to participate in a very small baby shower for a young lady who comes to the Bible study that I lead.  It was Natalieanne's second child, so we weren't looking to do anything spectacular.  We all chipped in for a double stroller (her first child is less than 2 years old) and her friend in the group brought some shower snacks.  We knew we wanted to do our study that night, so there was no plans for games or anything else.  I just thought that the party was begging for something more for Natalieanne, so I came up with the following baby shower devotional to read to Natalieanne and a small favor to bestow on the guests.  I picked up pieces of the entire thing from websites which I have tried to faithfully represent with the links, so please click through to find the original posts and the inspiring information they contain.

As you add another life to your family there will be beautiful moments and hard moments both, but my encouragement to you, when you are in the trenches of daily life with two children, is that God is working in your life – in each circumstance, each diaper, each smiling child and each child that is driving you crazy. God is using it all to transform you into the image of His Son.

So, what part of this transformation is your responsibility? This is the good news indeed, because your job is simply to trust and obey. You’ve started very well on the obey part- learning who God is, what He is like and how you should act toward Him. Coming to this Bible study is evidence that you are on the path to obeying His commands. Keep it up! I found his short excerpt from the devotional “Blessed is the Mother who Clings” by Mary E. Hamrick, which illustrates how as you follow the Lord and are refined by him your children come along and learn from you. The except came from a blog post you can read and find here.  She says,

• “Blessed is the child whose mom’s delight is in the law of the Lord”, for the child will learn to enjoy reading and studying God’s Word.
• “Blessed is the child whose mom puts her trust in the Lord”, for the child will learn that the Lord is trustworthy and faithful.
• "Blessed is the child whose mom’s sins are forgiven”, for he will learn about God’s grace and mercy.
• "Blessed is the child whose mom’s steps are ordered by the Lord”, for the child will learn to yield their life and direction to the Lord’s guidance.
• "Blessed is the child whose mom perseveres”, for the child will learn to press on through tough situations and lessons, never giving up.

But, how about that trust part? Having young children can seem so very serious. You’ve a responsibility and a God-given earnestness to take that responsibility seriously. The heart of this kind of trust comes when we realize that our children belong to God and we need to learn how to act like that is true. I found this short list of reasons why our children belong to God and then another list of how we can start acting like it.   You can read the original post of this information here.  I've edited her version slightly.

Reasons why our children belong to God:  

1.  He created them.

             Psalm 139:14, I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are
                                     your works; my soul knows it very well. 

You and your husband did not create your child. No human can create something that is eternal. God allows us to have a small part in his creation. Don’t take advantage of this privilege by taking ownership of something that doesn’t belong to you. 

2. He purchased their salvation.

               Hebrews 9:12 He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood 
                                      of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal
                                      redemption.
 
Not only is He their Creator, but He is also their Savior, and hopefully their Lord. From our point of view, it’s not normal that the creator should have to purchase his own creation, but God did this for us and for our children. But that is just how much God loves us- He didn’t leave us in our sin but saved us, paying the biggest price.  

3.  He sustains them.

                 Colossians 1:17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

He gives them every beat of their heart and every breath they take. We mothers do not keep our children alive. God does.

It’s not about GIVING our children to God. It’s about RECOGNIZING that they already belong to Him, and to start acting like it. This is a higher motivation for training and disciplining them. We might be careless at times with our own possessions (new clothes get old over time), but if we love God, we won’t want to be careless with His possessions.

So, how do we begin to act like our children belong to God? 

• Develop their character. You are training them to be a “soldier of Jesus Christ.” When they are very little, you do this by teaching them to obey. The way they obey you now is how they will obey God later.
• Stop worrying about them. Trust God for their safety and their future and their health.

Your children truly will grow up and be blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) to have you as their mother because you are blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) to have God as your Redeemer.

Let me finish with this. The Bible tells us the following:

           Hebrews 10:24-25a  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 
                                            not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging 
                                            one another.
We’ve already committed to one of these commands. By coming to study each week we are not neglecting to meet together and I know that I’ve been extremely encouraged by each of you here. I thought we might commit to “stir up one another” when it specifically comes to Natalieanne with a common tradition I found on the internet. Sometimes called a mother blessing or a blessingway, we can commit to bless the new life within Natalieanne in prayer. I’ve made these favors for each of you to take home. If Christine [a friend of the pregnant woman, Nataileanne] would be willing to notify us when Natalieanne’s labor has begun, we can each commit to the following when we find out:






Light the candle which symbolizes the eternal presence of the Holy Spirit and say a prayer for Natalieanne, her child-to-be Hypatia, father Lenny, and sister Zyah. Pray that God would make Natalieanne strong in faith and utterly dependent upon Him in all things. 

 





These favors were created with a whole lot of love and a very little bit of time.  I think they were lovely and to the point though.  A small tealight candle (Partylite's Strawberry Rhubarb to be exact, which I highly recommend because they smell lovely!) is wrapped in a 12 x 6 inch rectangle of white tulle (I folded the piece in half to double up on the look).  The tulle is closed with a small piece of pink baker's twine.  The tag was created using my Accent Essentials (I think) Cricut cart to cut out a shadow version of the scalloped circle.  The image of the lovely little girl reminded me of Natalieanne's curly hair when I viewed it over at the Graphics Fairy.  I placed the image in a Word file, placed Word Art around (for the Natalie & Hypatia words) and printed multiples on white printer paper which I then glued onto the scalloped circle.  Using the baker's twine, I tied the tag to the favor.  Viola!  

Natalieanne is due next week.  How wonderful?!  We can't wait to see Hypatia and to watch her grow with her mommy into the joy of the Lord!