I love attending baby showers, as I seem them as special moments where I get to share an important time in the life of a friend or family member, getting ready to introduce their bundle of joy to the world. What a beautiful season of anticipation and joy of motherhood that is about to unfold!
Some of us go to great lengths of thoughtfulness and creativity to make the baby shower a beautiful occasion, which is very heart warming to every mother and I’m sure the baby feels the atmosphere of love as well, even in the womb.
Baby showers usually takes place a month before birth. What if we have a baby shower day for each month of pregnancy, where the pregnant mum would choose that day to shower God’s blessings over her unborn child by focusing on a theme. The theme might be “strength” and it could go like this:
- I bless you my beloved child, even though your frame is tiny, the Holy Spirit fills you with strength in your bones and immune system to overcome sickness and any other challenge.
- I bless you with strength and confidence in my/our love for you and in the endless love of Almighty God.
- I bless you with strength to be your own person and may I have the grace to nurture and help you to channel this well.
- I bless you my loving child with a strength to always choose what is right, even though you may be standing alone in your choice
- I bless you my loving child with the strength to trail blaze useful problem solving ideas, drawing confidence and strength from God
You can also involve close family members and friends in the process as well, as they get to bond with the child and have an input, as a community, into blessing the child, which is a very godly thing. You could provide them with 9 dates to put in their diaries, depending on how far along you are before you announce your pregnancy. They can either use their words or you can provide them with a Bible verse to inspire them and or give them a monthly theme on the blessings that they wish to shower your baby with.
When this is done, you can create a book or file with dividers for each month and file away the blessings provided and keep it for your child until he or she is old enough to understand and appreciate it.
There is power in community blessings, which unfortunately, has become a lost treasure in our society. An example of a community coming together to bless a family can be found in the book of Ruth chapter 4:11-12
And all the people who were at the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel; and may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring which the Lord will give you from this young woman.”
What a beautiful display of the blessing of a community, united as one for the good of one another. Grant us more of this Lord!
Joanne Sojinu
Image by Karen Arnold, Pixabay