My days were slow yet full. Feed the baby; change the diaper; do the dishes; replace the paci. Task by task, the day ticked by. I was thrilled to be a first-time mom, but these newborn days were filled with a monotony that appeared to lack eternal purpose. My desire was to raise little image-bearers who would glorify God and have hearts for the least of these. But where did discipleship fit with sleep schedules, bottle types, and swaddling?

In the midst of my discouragement, I received a liturgy written for changing diapers. These lines jumped off the page:

By love and serviceI am tending a budding heart that,rooted early in such grace-filled devotion,might one day be more readily inclinedto bow to your compassionate conviction. (Every Moment Holy, 1:53)

A spark was lit, and a new belief began to form. I was much nearer to tending a budding heart than I realized. The first twelve months of my daughter’s life were not just about keeping her alive, but about laying a foundation of faithfulness from which the rest of our family discipleship could rise.

Hard, High, Happy Calling

I know the late-afternoon dread that creeps over you because the night ahead may be filled with loneliness and void of deep rest. I have fought the irrational fear that refuses to budge no matter how many promises you throw at it. I have looked in the mirror and had the disorienting experience of not recognizing whom I saw. I have wrestled to make the right decision without finding peace. I get it. So isn’t adding the task of discipleship overcomplicating this already-fraught season of motherhood?

I want to squeeze your shoulders and say that intentional early discipleship will not make these struggles worse; instead, it will bring light and life. The imperative for parents is to make known God’s works to our children and our children’s children (Deuteronomy 4:9). Tell of his salvation, that he heard our cries for help, came down from heaven, and set us free from our bondage to sin so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord (Psalm 102:18–20). Go and make disciples (even little ones!) by teaching them to obey God’s word (Matthew 28:19–20).

What a high calling. One with eternal implications. When we keep this end in mind, the newborn challenges will bloom into moments of steadfastness and purpose (James 1:3–4). Will they still be hard? Yes, but we will be saved from much fruitless navel-gazing that leads only to more pain. We will be welcomed into a life of significance and joy even when our baby is strapped to our hip.

If you are a first-time mom, please know that this season does not have to drag by. The baby days, like the rest of motherhood, offer a space in which God can be magnified and enjoyed — right now by moms, and later (we pray) by our children. So, consider with me two ways that a mom can care for a baby’s body while attending to her (and her child’s) soul.

1. Stay active while still.

Shortly after my daughter was born, I was mourning how unproductive I felt while nursing. Hours of each day (and night), my body was still — and my mind mostly empty. I began to be convicted that seemingly boring moments like these were times to steward to the glory of God. Instead of gazing at my phone or worrying about the stage of my daughter’s development, I could speak with my heavenly Father. What a glorious way to spend my still moments!

The habit of prayer blesses our children; it also blesses us. Prayer is not a throwaway habit, only useful when we need something. It’s a privilege and a lifeline to praise and petition the God of the universe (Hebrews 4:16). We can spend these early days of our children’s lives training our souls to turn to our Maker in all of life’s moments. The result will be an anchored mother who glorifies God as she calls upon and happily submits to him (Hebrews 6:19).

Discipling our newborns begins here — with prayer. We can receive these mundane days as a good gift from our compassionate Father. He is giving us hours upon hours to learn to call out to him. And if we let it, this habit can shape our mothering for the rest of our days. No matter our child’s age, season, or proximity to us, praying will always tune our hearts to the melody of God’s goodness and sovereignty.

What a beautiful foundation we lay for our babies when we bathe their lives in prayer. What if, from their earliest moments, they saw and heard their momma crying out to God? They will see what it looks like to believe that God hears us (1 John 5:14), they will hear what it sounds like to believe that he revives the contrite heart (Isaiah 57:15), and they will rest in the comfort of a mother who does not fear anything that is frightening (1 Peter 3:6). For in the mundane stillness of motherhood, they have heard her cast all her anxieties on the Lord (1 Peter 5:7).

“Every sleepy step you take without grumbling glorifies God. Every bottle washed with prayerfulness glorifies God.”

If you are unsure of how to begin this spiritual discipline, may I encourage you to start with God’s words to us? I learned to pray Scripture from my mother, as I watched her faithfully pray Colossians 1:9–13 over our family for many years. I can testify that my own prayer life has been transformed by praying God’s word. It guides me away from the self-centered prayers that naturally come to my lips and pulls me up to pray with God at the center. Can I challenge you to start small? Try jotting Colossians 1:9 on a sticky note and putting it by your sink where you do dishes. Trust me, you will begin to see your prayer life grow.

2. See glory in tiny toes.

Jonathan Edwards believed that “the tiniest details in everything, from spiders and silkworms to rainbows and roses, all pour forth the knowledge about Christ and his ways” (Rejoicing in Christ, 25). Encouraged by his vision of seeing everything in the world as a pointer to God’s glory, I began to strain my eyes to see past my never-ending tasks to what I could learn about Christ. Soon, God was revealing his awesome character, no matter how trivial the moment or how hidden I felt. My thoughts began to change from stressing about how well my daughter slept to God-inspired awe.

Look with me at some examples of how the newborn days pour forth the knowledge of Christ (Psalm 19:2). The way her little hand grasps your finger can remind you of how we ourselves can grasp the mighty hand of our Father (Psalm 63:8). The first time he smiles, we can remember that as believers God has made his face to shine upon us (Numbers 6:25). And when our children cry out to communicate that they need us, we can remember that we are likewise able (and commanded) to make our requests known to our Lord (Philippians 4:5–7).

As mothers, we get the privilege of drawing our children’s attention to these realities from the earliest moments. Seeing and speaking about the glory of God — both in the world and in the gospel — will weave discipleship into the routines of family life. Before you know it, your little one will point to the sky and say, “God made that!” because she has been watching and listening to you enjoy the glory of Christ.

Fellowship of Discipling Moms

Every sleepy step you take without grumbling glorifies God. Every bottle washed with prayerfulness glorifies God. Every rock and bounce while you sing songs of praise glorifies God. Every tear you cry while you fight to rest in God’s providence glorifies him. Faithfulness to little souls is not wasted. It has the potential to bear fruit for generations.

As Christian mothers, we can model and call each other to this kind of joyful intentionality. I mourn the amount of time I wasted complaining about my newborn woes to other moms. Gospel friendship connected by shared experience disintegrated into discussions of whose baby slept the worst. But what if we lamented the pain, turned to the only one who can help, and then shared ideas for how to root our children (and ourselves) in the truth? Flooding the newborn days with discipleship would help us communally fight for obedience when we feel the impulse to grumble (Philippians 2:14). Imagine the ripple effects through our families and churches if our motherhood circles became think tanks for intentional discipleship!

Right now, you are laying kindling from which your little one’s faith may one day spark. Salvation is not ours to give, but we are tasked with the high and holy charge of discipling in such a way that makes God’s glorious character clear. My prayer is that we see a new generation of Christians whose whole life was built on knowing and loving God, even from the newborn days.

I sometimes feel that I am living just as long as I have something great to work for.

My mother-in-law, Joni, lives with my wife and me. She’s in relatively good health for being 100 years old. She laughs. She cries. She jokes a bit. Her grandchildren and great-grandchildren love to visit. They’re intrigued by her stories from her youth.

Last week, she casually told me she had just completed a monthlong study of the book of Daniel. “Daniel!” I burst out in surprise. I’m not sure if, at 100, tackling that prophetic and apocalyptic book would be on my bucket list. But now, I see, perhaps it should be.

Yet Joni struggles with one particular question. It haunts her, especially on days when her outlook is low or her blood pressure is high. Why am I still here?

What Are You Living For?

Joni’s husband is gone. Her firstborn has passed. Her sister lived to 108 but left us last December. Her joints ache. She grieves over the dramatic moral collapse of our society. She’s ready to go home. So the question returns: “Why am I still here?”

Perhaps quiet sympathy under a sovereign God who always has his hidden reasons would be the best response. Yet in my mind, we have at least a partial answer.

In 1975, as a 20-year-old college student, I found one precious part of the answer. I read Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and a biography of his life by his friend Eberhard Bethge. After a year in prison, and about a year before his execution by the Nazis, he confided to Eberhard, “I sometimes feel that I am living just as long as I have something great to work for” (136).

This I believe is as true for Joni today as it was for Bonhoeffer. I believe it for myself. I was so awestruck by this statement of faith that, 47 years after first reading it, the words still inspire and push me. “What are you living for, John? You only have so much time to contribute to the unfolding, ever-advancing Great Work of the gospel. Make the most of the opportunity!”

Best Use of Evil Days

Bonhoeffer was not arrested for plotting to kill Hitler. The plot and his role in it were unknown at the time. When the plot failed, the key instigator, Claus von Stauffenberg, was executed the next day. Others committed suicide so as not to reveal more names under torture.

Up to this time, Bonhoeffer’s work in the resistance effort was concealed by his pretense of being a rather naive pastor who loved his country and supported the government. He feigned ignorance of political matters and argued that he was improperly arrested. His calculation was that with the end of Hitler, he would be released — his role in the plot never investigated, let alone discovered. But the moment he heard that Hitler survived, he knew his ruse was played out and his life forfeited. His name was discovered in a diary of one of the chief plotters. As Russians stormed into Berlin, Bonhoeffer was hanged beside his brother and five other co-conspirators.

When Bonhoeffer spoke of living “just as long as I have something great to work for,” the context shows he was reflecting on Ephesians 5:15–16: “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” That the times were evil was self-evident to him. The opportunity he saw was to use his time in prison to finish his book Ethics.

Works Reserved for You

Why has Bonhoeffer’s statement of faith made such an impact on me? For at least two great reasons. First, Bonhoeffer’s declaration captures what it looks like to believe and live out Ephesians 2:10, that we were all “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

We each have some good works that God has reserved for us, that allow us to contribute to and advance his Great Work. His plan unfolds from creation to consummation. Bonhoeffer, Joni, you, and me — we all get to contribute our part to his global, unassailable work.

Bonhoeffer saw his book on ethics as something that, through many experiences and years of biblical meditation, God had prepared for him to write. With evil and death all around him, and restrained to a cell block, writing the book was the one thing he felt he had been spared to accomplish. And given the evil of the times, he felt — as we all should feel — an urgency to make the most of his opportunities while he could.

To Live Is Christ

Bonhoeffer was executed before he could finish what he thought God wanted him to accomplish. In Joni’s case, she’s outlived the time when active practical good works of service are possible. This leads me to my second reason for loving this particular line. To live for Christ himself — openly, daily, enduringly — is something great to work and live for. As the Bible says, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

Bonhoeffer did live long enough to do this. Joni also has something great to work for, even at 100: to show us what it is to live for Christ even as we grow so weak in body and very tired of this world.

Honestly, I am no great fan of Bonhoeffer’s books. I struggled through his unfinished Ethics. I also read The Cost of Discipleship, and while I appreciate it, I wonder if it would be in print today without one remarkably quality: Bonhoeffer himself really lived for Christ — openly, daily, enduringly — and showed us, by his life and death, “the cost of discipleship.”

It’s the man behind the book that makes a book like his worth reading. Living for Christ in such evil times and circumstances, and dying even as Nazism was being put to death — this was something great to live and work for.

Running with a Walker

Joni is still here because living for Christ at 100 is itself a great thing that glorifies God and advances his kingdom. She’s mostly blind to how merely living day to day for Christ up in her room, praying and reading her Bible, means anything to anyone else. She will accuse me of making much ado about nothing.

But I say that finishing a study on the book of Daniel at 100 years old is an attractive picture of what it means to seek the kingdom of God and long for the day of Christ’s appearing.

While she cannot travel these days, her testimony can. I’ve told her stories in China, Uganda, Cuba, and elsewhere. She needs a walker. But her story can still run. I sometimes feel she is living just so long as she is needed to woo the next generation to live for Christ. That is something great to work for.

Part 12 Episode 169 Human depravity reveals itself when people sin, and when they urge others to do the same. In this episode of Light + Truth, John Piper turns to Romans 1:28–32 to give us hope in the face of all the depravity around us.