My healthcare provider recently sent me a postcard promoting one of its initiatives for women. The card read:
Starting a family may not be in your plans right now. But if you’re thinking about having a baby someday, it’s important to remember a healthy pregnancy begins long before conception.
While having a child is one of my top ten concerns these days (biological clock ticking, providing background music), I believe God used this mailer to send a message to you. Just as a woman can prepare her body to conceive a baby, you can prepare to birth your hopes and dreams. Are you taking your vitamins, or doing what is necessary to enrich your vision?
What do you want to birth in 2009?
Just recently, I talked with a friend about how I go about preparing to achieve future goals and visions. While most people are trying to get through Christmas, I already envision a completed dissertation, a wonderful teaching job, a new location, and a move in June or July. These things will come to pass, but before they do, preparation is necessary.
Things do not always go as planned, but we must write the vision (Habakkuk 2:2). Before I returned to school in August 2005, I began the application process in September 2004. In the fall of 2004, I began assessing my finances to determine how I could resign from my job and move 500 to 1,500 miles away within a year. Prior to moving, I held weekly “porch sales” (I didn’t have a yard but I had a whole lot of porch) to purge items I didn’t need and make money to finance my move. You get the picture.
The postcard I received listed seven suggestions for how to prepare for pregnancy. So often God sends us similar notifications regarding those seeds He has placed within us, but we dismiss them by saying:
“I’m too old.”
“I have these kids.”
“I could never do that.”
“What are people going to say?”
“I can’t afford to do that.”
“I want to go back to school, but (fill in the blank)”
“I would do ‘A’ if ‘B’.”
How long will your wombs (yes, men, consider yourself with a womb this week) remain barren? How long will you ignore the labor pains? When will you give birth?
While preparing this meditation God sent me to this familiar and seasonally appropriate passage:
Matthew 1:18 (Amplified Bible)
18Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place under these circumstances: When His mother Mary had been promised in marriage to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be pregnant [through the power] of the Holy Spirit.
Beloved, consider today that the Holy Spirit is waiting to use you as a vessel in this earth. Has God given you a vision for a day care center that teaches Christian principles and old-fashioned manners? Has He given you the vision of a nursing homes where our elders would be nurtured and cared for with gentleness? Has he given you a testimony that belongs in a book?
I don’t know about you, but I am getting ready to birth some things in 2009? The labor pains have lasted far too long. My water is about to break, and it is time to head to the delivery room. There is more than one birthing suite available, so do not allow your issues to keep you in the waiting room.
A.D. Simmons
P.S. It has been a pleasure sharing with you this past year through Arlecia’s Doses of Inspiration and this new blog. It has been a rough year, but I am still standing. May the joy of the Lord be your strength during these difficult times. Please feel free to send me an e-mail at looknlive@gmail.com if you have enjoyed this blog or would like to offer other comments. Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and Hallelujah for another year!
I am going to begin my breathing techniques….
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