That’s My Baby!

I read a joke about a woman who realised that her child did not resemble anyone in her family or her husband’s family and so decided to run DNA tests. The results confirmed that the child was not biologically theirs. Upon breaking the news to her husband, he went like “but honey, don’t you remember, the day we were leaving the hospital after her birth you handed the baby over to me and said “honey can you please change the baby, she’s soiled” so I went and got another one”!

Hilarious isn’t it? Well how many of us would want to have our baby exchanged at birth? That is no funny business! We would sue the hospital if we found there had been any such happening and move heaven and earth to ensure we got our baby back. So imagine the scene in Solomon’s palace when two women appeared before him fighting over a baby. The Bible describes them as two harlots who lived in the same house and had each given birth to a son. The first woman said she woke up in the night to find a dead baby lying by her side and knew immediately that it was not hers. Her roommate insisted that hers was the living child and the commotion finally ended up in Solomon’s court.

The wise King Solomon listened to both sides and gave the final verdict, or so it seemed. He called for a sword to cut the living baby into two with one half to be given to each woman. The real mother was moved with compassion and asked the King to just give the baby to the other woman, but the other woman who off course had already lost her child insisted on the division of the living child. Solomon wisely discerned who the real mother was and asked that the child be restored to the woman who had asked for the child to be spared.

My focus today is whose baby are you carrying? Are you nursing your own baby in your bosom? Or you have a dead baby incapable of deriving nourishment from you? The baby I am referring to here is your dream, your gift, your talent, your assignment. A dead baby may be anything you are carrying that is not in line with God’s purpose for you, something that does not feed your passion or something outside of your area of gifting. Imagine trying to keep a dead baby warm! How hard it must be! No matter how hard you try, it can’t respond to you! It’s like flogging a dead horse. What good can it do? You better go look for your living child, that which is birthed of you and that you can nurture and nourish.

In the reportage in Solomon’s court the first woman said that the other had slept on her baby and smothered it to death. What a sad thing for any mother to experience! Killing your own baby! Sleeping on it means, the mother had not been careful enough to take care of her child. She had thought of her own comfort in bed without taking heed to the safety and well-being of her baby. What a tragedy! But doesn’t it happen to us in other ways?

God has placed a baby in your hands. That gifting, that ability you have is your ‘baby’? How well are you taking care of it? If you sit or rather sleep on it, it will die from suffocation. If you don’t harness its potential but rather carelessly stifle it, it cannot yield any returns or live to delight you and others; it will fade out and die. It’s often said of talent that if you don’t use it, you will lose it! I experienced this myself when I ignored my gift of writing and went through a period of drought where I couldn’t write a thing! I cried out to God and threw myself back in it and thankfully I found the spark again!

If you don’t nurture the gift you have, it cannot blossom, it will not grow, it will die and leave you frustrated and bitter and perhaps like the woman in the story you may attempt to grab another’s baby! You may ask, how can that be?  Well, that is when you try to be something you are not or operate in a gift or area you are not fashioned for. You look on with jealousy at another’s living baby (gift) that has blossomed because the person was vigilant enough to nurture, protect and hone it into perfection while you ignored to take care of yours. You are quick to accuse others of unfair play when you know that it’s you who is not trying hard enough!

You are happy when others flop because it makes you feel you have company! You scoff at others attempts to polish their skills and even want to steal another’s shine! If you have ever felt this way or you still do, now is the time to have a reality check; what are you doing with your own baby? It has the potential to thrive if you will only give it life. Give it life by practice, by sharpening it and by exposing it to others! One mother was cautious and diligent, the other was careless and callous. Which will you be?

Discontent and envy thrive when we are not living out our potential or maximising our giftings. Today, determine to be a nurturer and nourisher of your baby or babies! Determine not to let your baby die. Hold it close to your heart, don’t smother it, but do what it takes to make it flourish and yield the results you desire.

Look in the mirror and say to yourself, “this baby is mine” and give it your all!

I look forward to cheering you on as you take that baby, embrace, cultivate and develop it till it brings pleasure and fulfillment and becomes a blessing to you and others!

I hope you will cheer me on too! 😊