One Year Postscript

Monday, November 23, 2009

This one goes out to all the other moms of infants. You are not alone. And I hope this encourages you, as the other mom did me, to always remember to love our husbands well.

I was listening to another mom talk about the first year of motherhood. One of the things she pointed out stuck out to me, because I experienced it as well. It's the other side of parenthood: second-fiddle-hood. That first year, while filled with so much fun and excitement, can also be really difficult on the marriage. 4 am feedings, night/day confusion, chasing an energetic crawler around, putting so much energy and focus on to this little person who can do so little for himself. These things drain a person and steal time from that so precious and primary of relationships, marriage. Hopefully, as we move into the second year, our priorities can shift back, our energies can be poured not just into this precious child but also to one another, to the marriage that is the bedrock of our family.

In our family, our desire is for God to be the center of our home, and our marriage to follow in second place for priorities. We love our child and I believe that the strength of that love will be attested to by the strength of the marriage of his parents. We will love our child well and raise him with the knowledge that there is a Creator God who loves him and desires a relationship with him; our hope is that Soren will passionately and obediently follow Him all of his days. And this can come only as we, his parents, first love God, second love one another, and third, love Soren and future children our family may include.