Don’t Take Blessings For Granted

By the time I had a fourth baby, I felt like an experienced pro. I had three little children who were five and under at the time. Life was a little loud and hectic, but I was handling it in stride. However, I didn’t notice just how self-sufficient I had become or how I had come to expect everything to be “fine.” I was taking God’s blessings for granted, and the challenges of baby number four made it clear. Let’s have a story time.

For This Child I Prayed

Multiple sources informed me that three children were plenty. I had no lack of encouragement, but the encouragement was explicitly to be done having babies. Raising children is hard work, and why would I want to make things harder?

Maybe because I’m a bit oppositional, I knew we should have a fourth. In all seriousness, though, my husband and I just didn’t see a complete family when we looked at our family pictures. We believed our home had room for more. And so we prayed.

The longest wait between children was in between our third and fourth. So, although the wait wasn’t long, it felt like forever. We wanted this baby so much. And sometime in March of 2015 I found out I was expecting again. We were overjoyed!

An Unremarkable Pregnancy

I want to be one of those moms who remembers every little fact about her children. You know those moms, right? They remember which cravings they had with each child, they can recite every cute “kids say the funniest things” moments, and they can tell you every detail of their pregnancies.

I’m not her.

Here’s what I can tell you about this fourth pregnancy. I gained at least 50 pounds. I always did, actually. Our family was thrilled to find out we were having a girl. And it was pretty easy.

Nothing particularly remarkable happened. My husband had started his first pastorate as a bi-vocational pastor by the time I was pregnant, so I was alone with three kids at home. A lot. He checked in as much as he could at home, but he worked two jobs and extra gigs at his day job in order to make ends meet. He was busy. I was busy. Frankly, it was a blur.

A Blessing Arrives

Due to my firstborn’s group B strep, my doctor recommended that we schedule an induction in the 39th week if the baby looked healthy. It turned out that she was ready when the doctors were, too, because I came in to be induced only to find out I was already in labor.

This birth was the easiest one I experienced. I had an epidural, and for once, I had no side effects or scary moments because of it. Meanwhile, my sweet little girl was making her way into the world while my husband and I were cracking up the nurses with our own personal brand of birthing-is-business-as-usual humor.

I think I pushed, like, one and a half times, and there she was. The doctor and nurses gushed about how beautiful she was. However, they were all surprised that she didn’t weigh more. They weren’t concerned, though. Little did I know the issue of weight would be my constant companion for years to come.

This Blessing Comes With A Challenge

My experience in the hospital with this baby is why I had my fifth child at a birth center. Every time she fell asleep someone would walk in to wake her. Any time I finally got her started on a nursing session, medical staff would insist that we take a “quick break” so the hospital could check vitals again. No matter how many times I pleaded for some uninterrupted time, I was ignored.

A pediatrician introduced himself to me on the second day at the hospital to discuss some concerns. My baby was not gaining weight (typical for newborns). Not only that, she was also losing more than the CDC recommends. He suggested I nurse more. Of course, he continued to interrupt every other nursing session. So…

I explained that all my children lost that much and would gain it back quickly once we were home. He was skeptical, and he told me he wasn’t sure that he was comfortable sending her home with me when I was checked out. I felt like I had the wind knocked out of me.

Everyone Welcome My Old Friend, Fear

Despite his reservations, the pediatrician sent my daughter home with me, but he insisted on seeing us nearly weekly for months. No matter what I did to boost my already sufficient milk supply or how often I fed her, I could not get her out of the single digit percentile range for weight.

Because this isn’t a lesson on lactation, suffice it to say that this pediatrician had no clue what he was talking about. His suggestions were harmful to the goal of feeding my daughter properly, and his input was based on zero knowledge of our health histories, way of life, or breastfeeding.

I was scared all the time. I feared that the next time I saw this doctor he would claim I was not a fit mother, make accusations, and call authorities. Doubt about my daughter’s health crept in, and I wondered what I had done to deserve this. I was a good mom. I was willing to care for this baby, so why all the trouble with her weight?

Getting A Second Opinion

Finally, I decided to break away from the pediatrician we had been seeing. My daughter was flourishing. She met every milestone on time or early, and she had no health concerns aside from this doctor’s obsession with her weight.

I decided to switch to the Direct Patient Care model with a doctor in my neighborhood. She was a breath of fresh air. She gave a couple of helpful suggestions, but she also acknowledged that not everyone is going to be in the average range. She reassured me, and then we kept our eye on my daughter’s weight with typical well-child checks.

My daughter just turned six, and she is still a slight girl. But she’s a force to be reckoned with! She is smart, brave, chatty, agile, and gives the absolute best hugs. I’m so thankful for her and for the lesson I learned about myself during her infancy. I was taking God’s blessings for granted.

I Tend To Take All My Blessings For Granted

I’m the kind of woman that can really annoy people. Surprised?

Okay, I have a lot of quirks, but I’m not talking about any of that. I’m talking about being the person who seems to always get what she wants. I don’t actually get everything I want, but my life has been an easy one so far. We all have struggles, but mine have been infinitesimal compared to so many others.

Before you turn green with envy, I have to tell you that a relatively easy life makes for some of the most ungrateful people. Why? Well, we get too accustomed to things just nicely flowing along that we begin to expect it. By the time I had my fourth baby, I assumed there were no bumps on the road ahead. *pause for audience laughter*

It’s so foolish, but I got too comfortable. I forgot key passages in the Word that tell us to expect trials and tribulations. Plus, I discounted the inescapable fact that I live in a fallen world and things go wrong here. I expected every blessing I received and ignored the possibility of troubles ahead. That’s a nasty combo.

A Few Examples Of What I Forgot

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

1 Peter 4:12

“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;”

James 1:2

“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;”

Romans 5:3

“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

2 Timothy 3:12

Why Do We Take Blessings For Granted?

I think we all takes blessings for granted at some point. How quickly do we forget what God has done for us? He provides in our need, and we fear He may not the next time we encounter a struggle. The same can be said with blessings. We receive a blessing from Him, but over time we can stop giving Him the credit. We, often unintentionally, begin to see life differently…and incorrectly.

1. “I have earned what I have.”

We may or may not say it, but sometimes we think we deserve the good things that God gives us. You worked hard for the money that bought your new home. You trained hard to win that competition. You completed medical school, and you earned that title of “Doctor.”

All that can be true, but you still didn’t earn it alone. And you certainly don’t deserve it. God gives us every breath we breathe. He has given us intelligence, the ability to work, our family, etc. If He wanted, God could speak us out of existence. In His grace, though, He gives us blessing upon blessing. And then people like me find a way to take it all for granted and pat ourselves on the back for a job well done.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

Romans 3:23

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (emphasis mine)

Romans 6:23

2. “Things in my life are always good.”

My life, like many others, has been pretty “good.” Good, in this case, means that I’m not having a lot of drama, no struggle feels overwhelming, and I’m generally plugging along with life.

This is a dangerously comfortable head space in which to live. By the time I had my fourth baby, I wasn’t prepared for difficulty. Life had felt so seamless for so long that I began relying more on myself and less on Him.

John 3:30 says, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” As I turned to myself in everything, He decreased. I was so accustomed to things being “good” that I had come to expect it. It is not hard to take blessings for granted when you have come to expect them. And when a trial comes along, you’ll feel completely unprepared to take it on.

3. “I assume God honors my will.”

God knows what I want, and He gives it to me. Right? I think a lot of us believe this, expect this, or hope for this at least on occasion. If things are going according to our plans and desires, then it must be that God is honoring our will. Wrong! God does what He wants. If it isn’t His will, then He won’t do it.

This mentality is yet another example of us trying to be in control of our lives and take credit for the good in them. We treat God like a cosmic genie when we expect Him to fulfill the will we have for our lives.

We act as if we know what is best for ourselves in light of eternity! When we place ourselves on the throne, then of course we take our blessings for granted. They no longer seem like gifts from an omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient God (Psalm 139). Instead, our blessings are just the things we wanted being given to us as they should be because we told our divine butler to fetch it for us.

Final Thought

Being a wife and mother can become so all-consuming that we begin to unintentionally drift into some unbiblical thinking. Other times, we neglect time with the Lord and forget to give praise to Him for all He has given to us. Yes, He has given us salvation which is the greatest blessing of them all, but that isn’t where the blessings stop.

Our lives are filled with things and people to be thankful for every day. I know it can feel odd to give thanks and praise for the small things, but we should. Your life, like mine, might feel like it’s on autopilot with everything in working order. That’s great. You should definitely praise God and keep Him close because those are the time we are most likely to neglect Him and take His many blessings for granted.

Ultimately, the unexpected struggle I had with my fourth baby taught me to see the blessings in my life – big and small, to understand that those blessings were given freely by God according to His will, and that no one is immune to trials and difficulties. Thankfully, though, He has blessings for us in those times, too.

What blessings have you taken for granted?

Image courtesy of Sixteen Miles Out via Unsplash.