by Naomi Chua
“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the Lord is good…”
Psalm 100:4-5 (NKJV)
Conceiving and giving birth to a healthy baby is an answered prayer from God. She is a blessing, a gift which God blessed my family with. With the new addition of my daughter, everything changed! My lifestyle, sleep patterns, family considerations, family dynamics and my heart haven’t been the same since she was born. Initially when we had help from a live-in confinement helper, the adjustment to parenthood was manageable, as she took care of all the household chores, cooked sumptuous meals and she helped to take care of my baby, especially during the wee hours.
The moment the confinement helper left was when the rubber hit the road! Everything within the household lands on both my husband and me now. By the end of the second week after the confinement helper left, I felt as though the sleepless nights and the different baby-caring ‘routines’ were consuming me. I started to grumble more about how physically and mentally tired I was feeling. There were moments I even avoided coaxing or cuddling my baby as much as I could. I would leave her entirely to my parents while I buried myself in household chores just to ‘get away’.
Thankfully such days didn’t last long and God’s words are always so timely. He chastened my heart through one of the devotions that we read as a church on the topic of thankfulness. It was from Psalm 100: 4 – 5 (NKJV) “4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. 5 For the Lord is good…”
At that very moment, it dawned upon me that the grumbling and complaints were a reflection of my ingratitude towards the Lord who is good. In fact, I was grumbling and complaining over the precious gift which I earnestly sought God for! I suddenly realized how I took for granted God’s blessing to me. Such negative heart attitude was the total opposite of the Christian character of thankfulness which I was supposed to embody and express.
Immediately I sought for God’s forgiveness for my ingratitude and lack of thankfulness. I realigned my heart to God once again, recognizing He is the Blesser and asked Him for the wisdom and strength to be a godly mother. Since then, every day I make a conscious decision to begin with giving thanks. I choose to be thankful to God in every baby-caring routine and also in my daily coming in and going out. Because these seemingly mundane ‘routines’ are also precious bonding moments with my daughter. Every comfort, cleaning and nursing routine is preparing her to fulfil God’s purpose in her life. And I also learn that one of the loudest and public expressions of praise I can bring to God is to be thankful to Him.
What about you? Which aspect of your life is God prompting you to begin to be thankful to Him through your words, actions and heart attitude? Perhaps you started out like me, thankful for the answered prayer, but lost sight of Him along the way. Let today be the day that you CHOOSE to be thankful to God. May this day become the beginning of your loudest expression of praise to God through your thankfulness to Him!
Check out our sermon series on Christian Character for more inspiring and practical messages on how to embody Christian Character. As you do so, you are expressing your praise to God and also bringing godliness into everywhere you go.