God's Grace and Baby Poop

9/21/2007

I've made an astonishing discovery in recent weeks: babies require a lot of time and work. To begin with, they produce large amounts of liquid from both ends of their bodies. Or in other words, they poop and puke like fountains. And they never seem to do it at the right times. In an ideal world, a baby would poop when its diaper was securely fastened about its bottom. But not my baby. She likes to go right in the middle of changing time, when her diaper is off and the world is hers to explode upon. A person in another room listening to me change Charis would hear, "Yes you're such a good girl, let's get this diaper off...whoa! Hey, not yet! Jen, get me something, quick!" And so we do lots of laundry, and change lots of sheets, and go through eight hundred diapers a day. A good portion of my time is spent helping my wife take care of Charis, which has led to me another not so astonishing discovery: I'm very selfish.

The truth is, I don't always like doing the hard work of caring for my little girl. Why? Because it takes away from my precious "me time". In my selfishness, I want some time to do the things I like to do. I want to relax, to take it easy, to have some down time. And frankly, when I think about maintaining this routine day after day, it gets to be a bit overwhelming. I don't have the strength to joyfully serve my wife and daughter for the next week, let alone the next month. I don't have the strength to die to myself and graciously care for my wife and daughter day after day. So I've discovered that I need the sustaining, powerful grace of God each day, each hour, each moment, to live a life that pleases Him.

I'm weak, and I desperately need grace, which makes the words of 2 Corinthians 12:9 very precious to me. Paul wrote:
But he [God] said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
How good it is to know that when I'm weak, Christ's power is strong. When I don't have the strength to continue serving, Christ's power is strong within me. When selfishness is raging within my heart, Christ's power is strong within me. And so I won't look beyond today. God will give me enough grace in each moment to live a life that pleases Him. Right now God hasn't given me the grace for tomorrow, but when tomorrow comes I know it will be there.

Are you aware of your need for God's sustaining, empowering, life-changing grace? Husbands, God is eager to give you the grace to serve your wife and family when you come home from a hard day at the office. Ask Him for that grace. Mom's, God is ready to dispense abundant grace each day to enable you to care for and raise your children for the glory of God. Students, there's grace for you too. When it seems that your life is overwhelmed by term papers and tests, there is sustaining grace available. But we must go to God every moment for this grace. We must fly to Him with our weaknesses, and He will sustain us by grace.

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Posted by Stephen Altrogge at 8:00 AM  

2 comments:

Yes my children (we had our second around the time you had your first) have proven (and will continue) to be tremendous tools in my sanctification. Who knew poop could be so edifying?

Alex F said...
September 26, 2007 at 11:12 PM  

You know you're right, baby poop is edifying!

September 28, 2007 at 9:57 AM  

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