Everyday Adventures: Walking
It had been one of those days. You know the kind. Well, all my fellow moms know the kind. The kind where the combination of a little tiny human that you love so much alternating between crying and nursing and the same four walls that you've been in for days straight makes you feel a little bit like a crazy person.
She had just finished nursing. The adorable baby boy was happily cooing on the floor while she picked up the living room. She glanced outside and noticed it looked like a beautiful day. The thought of taking a walk crossed her mind. She then thought how she would have to put on socks and shoes and then change her baby's outfit to something more suitable for outside. Then she would have to get the stroller all ready. Then she would have to buckle the baby in the seat, which 9 times out of 10 is guaranteed to make him completely melt down. She then tried to do mom math. You know the kind. It's a very specific formula: time since baby last nursed - time since baby last napped = approximate time you have to do any activity with a mostly content baby. Glancing at the stairs, she saw a pair of socks on the steps and inspiration hit. She could do this for the sake of her own mental health. Heck, she would bring some money and walk to the gas station a couple blocks from her house and get a treat for braving the outside world today.
She got ready and started her walk with a happy baby. The wind started to kick up so she put the visor down to where he was completely covered and snug in his stroller. Without his adorable baby face to stare at, her mind started to wander. She felt the wind whip through the hair on her unshaved legs and rolled her eyes and sighed in disgust. How long had it actually been since she'd shaved her legs she wondered. Her son had taken to screaming through the entire length of her showers for weeks now. It didn't matter what contraption she used to sit him in, what toy she used to distract him with, or even what room she put him in (with the baby monitor of course), he screamed until he was purple every single time she showered. That morning in a desperate attempt to not be a greasy hot disheveled mess when her husband came home from work, she had turned on Buzzbee on the tv and laid her 4 month old on the floor in front of it and took a shower. Much to her surprise, it bought her the 15 minutes she needed to take a shower and dress for the day. Now walking down the street the horror of her unshaved legs exposed to the public eye combined with the horror of the thought that she had used the tv to entertain her 4 month old baby just for a shower, and she didn't even get her legs shaved in that shower. The discouragement slowly crept over her like the tide slowly creeps up the beach.
She stopped walking so she could check on the baby. He sat in the seat - full, warm, loved, mostly clean, and now lulled to sleep by the rhythmic pace of his strolling mom. She grabbed her phone and snuck a quick picture of her sleeping stud to send to his dad and determined in that moment to walk for as long as he stayed asleep and content, for both of their sakes.
Much like the course she was walking, she let her mind go wherever it would. At one point she started thinking that she was quite out of shape, but yet it felt good to get moving. Even though she could tell her body was quietly aching under the weight of disuse, there was something about getting it moving even in the slightest measure that seemed to wake it up on a new level. For one inspired moment she thought she might take off in a jog. "Don't get crazy, girl," she thought to herself. From seemingly nowhere, she thought of something the Lord told her randomly in church a few weeks back - fat can slow you down or speed you up; what determines what the fat will do is the vessel. At the time that had seemed really cool, but meant next to nothing to her. Was even the Lord trying to tell her to loose some weight?
She turned the corner and her thoughts took another jump. She thought of another thing the Lord had spoken to her. This time the Lord had given her a word for someone else. In this word He had said that He gave this person enough fuel for the fight but instead of using it, this person had not engaged in the battle and the fuel had sat in his veins and clogged him up. The Lord then said that if this person would start using the fuel, he would become unclogged again and the sluggishness that he felt would leave.
Her mind and her pace quickened. The Lord was connecting dots for her that she previously didn't even know were there. Feeling a stirring in her spirit, she began to pray.
Keeping her quicker tempo, she prayed out loud. She prayed for anything and anyone that came to mind. The deflated balloon she felt like before had transformed into a high flying kite. She marched purposefully, praying the whole way, as her son slept quietly.
Suddenly this thought entered her mind: “Your life can be intercession.” She literally stopped in her tracks. That felt like a significant thought, but she couldn’t make sense of it. Remembering her sleeping babe and unwilling to wake him, she continued on her way more slowly and thoughtfully. “My life can be intercession....my life....can be intercession,” she pondered. Her inner (and let’s be real sometimes outter) dialogue went something like this: What is intercession? I’ve always heard it defined as standing in the gap. The Lord told me once that looked like laying your life down so that your life could be a bridge between people and Jesus.
Another thought broke loose and bubbled up to the surface: Jesus lives to make intercession. His life is intercession. His life is lived to create a bridge between people and God.
What had started out as a necessary-to-mama’s-mental-health walk had turned into an hour of purpose in the presence of God. Being a person who values the voice of the Lord and loves practical application, she sought to make sense of all the Lord had just spoken. She came up with something like this:
We are the Lord’s vessels. He gives us fuel for any and everything that we face. However, we can choose not to use the fuel He provides and it sit stagnant in our veins causing complacency. If we use this fuel though, we can live our lives like Jesus - completely laid down so that we create a bridge from people to God.
Her heart filled with wonder and awe at the Lord. How better to learn how to lay her life down than to mother this child? How gracious of the Lord to show her the better way at this early stage in her little one’s life.
She headed towards home. Pausing, she checked in on her sleeping son. She thought how wise the Lord was to make babies so incredibly cute. Any frustration from earlier in the day was completely gone when she stared into that beautiful sleeping face.
Strength renewed and courage restored, she and her boy entered their house.
She had just finished nursing. The adorable baby boy was happily cooing on the floor while she picked up the living room. She glanced outside and noticed it looked like a beautiful day. The thought of taking a walk crossed her mind. She then thought how she would have to put on socks and shoes and then change her baby's outfit to something more suitable for outside. Then she would have to get the stroller all ready. Then she would have to buckle the baby in the seat, which 9 times out of 10 is guaranteed to make him completely melt down. She then tried to do mom math. You know the kind. It's a very specific formula: time since baby last nursed - time since baby last napped = approximate time you have to do any activity with a mostly content baby. Glancing at the stairs, she saw a pair of socks on the steps and inspiration hit. She could do this for the sake of her own mental health. Heck, she would bring some money and walk to the gas station a couple blocks from her house and get a treat for braving the outside world today.
She got ready and started her walk with a happy baby. The wind started to kick up so she put the visor down to where he was completely covered and snug in his stroller. Without his adorable baby face to stare at, her mind started to wander. She felt the wind whip through the hair on her unshaved legs and rolled her eyes and sighed in disgust. How long had it actually been since she'd shaved her legs she wondered. Her son had taken to screaming through the entire length of her showers for weeks now. It didn't matter what contraption she used to sit him in, what toy she used to distract him with, or even what room she put him in (with the baby monitor of course), he screamed until he was purple every single time she showered. That morning in a desperate attempt to not be a greasy hot disheveled mess when her husband came home from work, she had turned on Buzzbee on the tv and laid her 4 month old on the floor in front of it and took a shower. Much to her surprise, it bought her the 15 minutes she needed to take a shower and dress for the day. Now walking down the street the horror of her unshaved legs exposed to the public eye combined with the horror of the thought that she had used the tv to entertain her 4 month old baby just for a shower, and she didn't even get her legs shaved in that shower. The discouragement slowly crept over her like the tide slowly creeps up the beach.
She stopped walking so she could check on the baby. He sat in the seat - full, warm, loved, mostly clean, and now lulled to sleep by the rhythmic pace of his strolling mom. She grabbed her phone and snuck a quick picture of her sleeping stud to send to his dad and determined in that moment to walk for as long as he stayed asleep and content, for both of their sakes.
Much like the course she was walking, she let her mind go wherever it would. At one point she started thinking that she was quite out of shape, but yet it felt good to get moving. Even though she could tell her body was quietly aching under the weight of disuse, there was something about getting it moving even in the slightest measure that seemed to wake it up on a new level. For one inspired moment she thought she might take off in a jog. "Don't get crazy, girl," she thought to herself. From seemingly nowhere, she thought of something the Lord told her randomly in church a few weeks back - fat can slow you down or speed you up; what determines what the fat will do is the vessel. At the time that had seemed really cool, but meant next to nothing to her. Was even the Lord trying to tell her to loose some weight?
She turned the corner and her thoughts took another jump. She thought of another thing the Lord had spoken to her. This time the Lord had given her a word for someone else. In this word He had said that He gave this person enough fuel for the fight but instead of using it, this person had not engaged in the battle and the fuel had sat in his veins and clogged him up. The Lord then said that if this person would start using the fuel, he would become unclogged again and the sluggishness that he felt would leave.
Strength renewed and courage restored, she and her boy entered their house.
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