"I slept like a baby last night."
I've heard people say this before and I can only imagine that they don't have a new baby at home. New babies cry a lot. They cry when they are tired, when they are hungry, when they have a messy diaper, and just generally when they want to (and apparently for no reason at all).
Not that Victoria Grace has been a fussy baby, but she has had her moments. Elaine and I both have had lots of time holding her and trying to rock her to sleep in the wee hours of the morning.
I don't know what people usually think about when they are rocking their infants at 2:30 am. Maybe they think about how awesome it is to have a baby to rock or, how tired they will be the next day or, about how tired they are at this exact minute. I know that I've had all these sorts of thoughts.
What I like to do most in these times, is to pray. For, I have found in those quiet, dark hours between the sunset and the dawn, that I can focus on my heavenly Father, even as I hold my own child. I can tell Him about everything that is going on and most particularly, share with Him my hopes and fears for my little girl and her future.
There are many moments of down time in each day (maybe there are fewer now that everyone has cell phones with them at all times). It is important to take these moments and use them for more than completing the next level of Candy Crush (or whatever the hot game is right now).
Children certainly do not make you draw closer to God, nor do the down times within each day. And yet, there are plenty of little moments that fill each day to do so, if you take advantage of them.
I have to say my favorite "down time," is cuddling a three week old in the stillness of a predawn morning.
Those prayers just have to be a little extra worthwhile.
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