Spiritual walk with God takes on a different meaning as a parent. If I pray for Emma to be God-fearing and for her to come to know God for herself, then I should firstly set an example of a disciplined prayer life and secondly continue to be fervent in my prayers for her.
I've been finding Our Daily Bread a little to generic as devotional material and sometimes the contemporary parallels are too simplistic.
Today I started reading I Give Myself to Prayer by Daniel Partner. It is a selection of 75 short prayers from Psalms with context provided such as who penned the prayer and under what circumstance.
Today's selection is from Psalms 3:1-5. What resonated most is verse 5.
I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
Perhaps taken too literally or too superficially, but in my case, being refreshed from short stretches to sleep in order to care for a newborn is very important, both for alertness and also morale.
I've also come to see things from a broader perspective - sleep deprivation at times and interrupted sleep is to be expected when caring for a newborn. As it is, I'm very fortunate to be able to raise Emma in a very conducive environment and in a society that provides paid maternity leave. Compared to many other mothers in much dire circumstances, I have nothing to complain about.
From now, I'll take all things in my stride, sleepily or otherwise and see each new day as a chance to make the most of it. Ultimately, God saw Emma through a safe delivery under irregular conditions and He will no doubt continue to provide all her needs.
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