Hearing “Ewa, you are carrying well,” has been one of the most meaningful compliments I received during my pregnancy. It has been a prayer point to carry well because I wanted to embrace the beauty of this season and look goodt while doing it. But, what I didn’t know was that just as I had to carry my baby for 39 weeks, I also needed to be carried too.
Many times during my pregnancy, my faith was tested and sometimes, I didn’t even have a mustard seed size-of-faith to believe God for healing, or for strength, or to not have a miscarriage. Many, many times I questioned my body’s ability to carry life to full term and questioned my ability to be a mother. But. God.
One thing I’ve learned is that throughout every transitional season of my life, God always sends helpers. Some of these helpers become longtime friends, and some are just meant for that season. In either case, these individuals help me to embrace that specific transition and support me through it in various ways. And today, I can testify that throughout my pregnancy season, I never felt alone. I had help through every trimester, and every form of help that I received was God’s way of “carrying” me.
There’s a story in Mark 2 that talks about the story of four men who carried their paralyzed friend to Jesus. They couldn’t reach Jesus through the crowd, so they dug a hole in the roof where He was preaching because they desperately wanted their paralyzed friend to be healed.
This pregnancy journey has shown me how I’ve needed to be carried to Jesus just like that. I needed to be covered in prayer when I didn’t have the strength to pray, I needed to be encouraged when I didn’t have the words to encourage myself, I needed to be checked on because I had difficulty getting out of my head and expressing all of what I was feeling. Just as my son needed me to do everything I could to get to full term and be ready to be his mama, I too needed a community of Believers who would help me get there. There were different encounters that I had with women in my life who would pray for me, check on me emotionally, or encourage me with the Word of God, and those were my “Ewa needs to be carried to Jesus” moments.
Being vulnerable can be a challenging thing to do. But, through my pregnancy I’ve learned that for the sake of my very own health, I have to let my circle of friends in the know (of course while using wisdom). Pregnancy literally forced me to open up more than I ever have before. And I’m glad it did because the more I opened up, the more strength I received. The more I knew how to let friends know how they could support me, and the more I then felt supported and affirmed. The saying “closed mouths don’t get fed” rings true. There’s a whirlwind of emotions and hormones that come with pregnancy, and I had to go through and face them all in order to birth my son. But, without the adequate support and prayer of a strong community, (and a praying and loving husband!) I’m not sure I would’ve made it through.
As I enter and journey through this new season of motherhood, I’m taking these lessons with me. Though it took pregnancy to teach me the power of a praying community and strength of being vulnerable, it reminds me of the paralyzed man in Mark 2, who had to go through the experience of literally breaking through the roof of a house to realize that Jesus could heal him. Sometimes life’s greatest lessons have to be learned through the most difficult seasons. All in all, I have the confidence that as God saw me through the highs and lows of pregnancy, He’ll see me through all that comes with motherhood, and I’m grateful that His grace is sufficient for me (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Carrying my son to full term and being carried through pregnancy myself has been God’s expression of His unfailing love towards me, and I hope and pray every pregnant woman or mother-to-be experiences this blessing. Help me share this post with one? Thanks.
Until next time,
Beautyoluwa
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