Sixteen years ago, pregnant with my first, I walked into a super-green shop full of all things mama natural. I picked up the earthiest looking mothering book in the store and read the pros and cons of cloth diapering vs. disposables. After thinking it through and doing the first-baby research, I never landed on cloth. Why? I didn't know where to start. (After all, YouTube wasn't even created yet.)
So, I didn't.
Fast forward through baby after baby and the every now and then thoughts of cloth diapering for a variety of reasons...never started. Until...a package arrived on my doorstep a few months back. A dear friend who knew my desires sent me a huge stash of cloth diapers and inserts...not just any kind, but really nice cloth diapers! I was so blown away by the generous gift! YouTube in full effect at this point, the same daughter I carried inside those sixteen years ago convinced me we could figure this cloth diapering thing out...together.
So, we did.
Baby #11, why would I start now?! ...considering she could be my last. My girls began coaching, "But think of all the $ we'll save and how soft those lush diapers are on her silky buns and I already do gobs of laundry anyway and it's really practical to never HAVE to go to the store because 'we're out of diapers' and..." Ultimately the conclusion I've landed on that motivates me most is...
My daughters will learn through this experience.
I realize this simple little corner of the latter stages of MY motherhood journey PRECEDES the beginning of THEIRS...and we can learn together! They will benefit from something I do now, no matter how late to the game I arrived and that is totally worth it!
I think of the film, Monumental, by Kirk Cameron. He goes to great lengths to explore the motivation behind the pilgrims' voyage to a new land. He shows us how they were chipping away at a 500 year plan. "Face down in the mud" these people sacrificed in significant ways, even to the point of death to be a bridge that their children and their children's children could walk over into a better life.
That is inspiring!
"Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation."
Joel 1:3
Taking cloth diapering as one example among many, the (much) bigger picture lesson here is that it's never too late to start something, even something that feels foreign and uncomfortable. Because eventually one day becomes two, then three, then four, then a week. Weeks turn into months and months stack up to years and if we'd like to progress, we'll have to have started somewhere.
And I figure...What better time to start something new than January??
"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time."
Ephesians 5:15-16
So, here's to a new year full of new starts. Here's to stepping out and being uncomfortable for a bit in order to gain for the long haul. Here's to perseverance and endurance for the race, gratitude to the God who enables us to do things infinitely loftier than cloth diapering. Here are my heartstrings humming a song to the tune of a 500 year plan. What can I start now that might benefit the next generation and the next? I can see that it's better to start somewhere than to look back with regret and worse off, miss an opportunity.
Here I am, daughters, picturing my life an arch flex, a bridge shaped pathway that you can cross over.
May these efforts pour out love for you and honor Godward as we seek to make the best use of our time.
I love you, girls!
"I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois
and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well."
2 Timothy 1:5
2 Timothy 1:5
