Life Lessons from the Baby Room

When I was pregnant, I was stoked about designing a room for the little one. The problem is we lived in a one-bedroom apartment and we’re trusting God for a move to a bigger house. God finally gave us a 2 bedroom apartment we liked and moved in late October with the baby due early January. I had done lots of research on gender neutral baby room decor and we settled on an animal theme.

Thus started the amazing job of decorating, I went from shop to shop looking for animal-themed fabric finally I found one that was just perfect, it had lions, giraffes, elephants, zebras, and other cute animals. I got started with sewing the curtain and making a laundry bin. I wanted the theme to be meaningful, so I cut out fabric pieces with the different animals added tag lines, stuck them on boards and hang them up. Here is what it looks like;

I thought I was a complete genius and was absolutely proud of myself. Fast forward, our son arrived and he is 14 months now. The animal boards are still on the wall, the little dude has no idea what they mean or say, but I do. As you imagine I spend a lot of time in the baby room, and I am constantly looking at the wall hanging. Recently it occurred to me I cannot expect our son (let’s call him Giggles) to be brave, strong, unique, and to stand tall if I am not doing the same. I started the process of self-evaluation, on these lines;

Am I brave like a lion? 

The Oxford dictionary primarily defines ‘brave’ as the following: Ready to face and endure danger or pain; showing courage. From this definition, there are two parts to being brave – the ability to endure, and courage. Truth is these two qualities are not mutually exclusive, I have to have both and they are of equal importance. Do I endure rough times, do I show courage on a day to day to basis? One thing has constantly plagued me and stood in the way of my being brave; fear. Like most people, I have a fear of rejection and fear of failure. I have come to learn however that there is no doing away with fear, I can only battle it with bravery.

 Am I strong like an elephant?

We are not talking about physical strength here. The best kind of strength is being strong in the Lord. …be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. (Ephesians 6:10).  I have learned that I am strongest in the Lord when I am at my weakest as a human being. I have seen God’s power severally work when I have surrendered situations that I felt powerless about to him, I have witnessed God fighting for me, battles that if I fought alone I would never win. The secret here is to understand that my strength is found ‘in’ the Lord, not ‘by’ or ‘for’ but in the Lord. Only when my life is positioned in the Lord, in union with Him, do I possess the appropriate power to overcome the enemy.

Am I Unique like the Zebra? 

An interesting fact about zebras is that there are no two zebras whose stripes are the same. They may look the same from a distance, but if you look closely every zebra has its unique stripes. Wow! the wonders of God’s creation. It’s the same with all human beings.

Believe it or not—no one else is just like me or you. My physical appearance, voice and personality traits-my habits, intelligence, personal tastes—all these make me one of a kind. Even my fingerprints distinguish me from every other human being—past, present, or future. I am not the product of some cosmic assembly line;  I am unique. But the most important fact of my identity is that God created me in His image (Genesis 1:27). He made me so I could share in His creation, could love and laugh and know Him person to person. I need to see myself how God sees me and walk in the confidence of this knowledge.

Am I standing tall like a giraffe? 

Put in another way, why do we work so hard to fit in when we born to stand out?. You can only stand out when you are yourself. Do I know my strengths?, Am I bringing them to the table on a day to day basis?. The biggest injustice I can do myself so to try to be like everyone else. If you know me I am pretty loud and vigorous, while I have always admired the quiet and calm women in my life, I have come to accept that God knew what he was doing when he made me loud and vigorous and I need to be true to myself

Challenge to you;

What lessons are you teaching your children that you need to apply yourself? 

Are you plagued with fear? or will you choose bravery? 

Is your strength found in the Lord? 

Are you being true to yourself 

Are you standing tall?