Dear Father,

I know you see your beloved one, the one who just brought new life into the world. I know you see her – tired, weary, full of joy, and full of love like she’s never known. I pray she knows that the very same deep, deep love she has for her baby is just the tiniest glimpse of your never-ending love for her. Give her a vision of you rejoicing greatly and singing over her as she does the same with her sweet new baby.

Father, I pray she will lean on your strength to help her make it through the long, long nights and days broken up into three hour feeding increments. Give her the stamina, endurance, and tenacity necessary to put the needs of her baby above her own, even as she pushes through sleep (and shower!) deprivation. And help her not to be too proud to admit she needs help and then to ask for and accept it.

Father God, help her to know that you are in all her moments, no matter how mundane or repetitive, that you see even the ten thousandth diaper change and the forty-seventh load of laundry. Help her recognize that she can invite you – the glorious – into the mundanity of infant care with a prayer, a song, a purposed thought. Help her know that you are near and that you see her.

I pray you grant her wisdom as she faces each day trying to make the best decisions for her little one. Help her not to be discouraged by the slew of advice and helpful suggestions, and give her discernment as she tries to weed through them all to find the gems she can use. Help her not to be discouraged at doctor’s appointments and know that sometimes doctors say too much and sometimes they don’t say enough and that she needs to trust her instincts when it comes to her baby.

Protect her from self-criticism as the enemy preys on her sleep-deprived mind and body. Give her confidence in her abilities to be the best person to care for her baby because she is the one you handpicked for that very special job. Don’t let her beat herself up if her baby isn’t taking to a schedule or feeding as well as her friend’s babies. Encourage her heart to know that she is doing her best and that is enough. Help her not compare her chapter one to someone else’s chapter six.

Father, please give her your eyes to see her beauty in these postpartum days. Help her to see that her body bears the marks of one who built and brought forth life and that is such a beautiful privilege. Help her to praise the fact that she is fearfully and wonderfully made, and that includes her body’s ability to grow life and the physical changes that occurred because of that experience. Help her to know she is cherished and treasured and lovely in your eyes.

And Heavenly Father, above all, give this sweet woman a heart to know that no matter what lies ahead for her and her baby, they are both in your hands. Help her to rest in your sovereignty and your plan for their lives. Help her to know the hope of a perfect eternity with you where there will be rest and peace and never a tear. Give her hope in that blessed assurance as she faces this life, with all its many joys and all its many sorrows, and give her a peace that passes all understanding.

Thank you Father. And it is in the precious name of your son, Jesus, that I ask these things.

Amen.