Lessons From Raising Baby Chicks

Oh tender friends, my baby chicks have got me feeling so emotional lately! Raising them is like an accelerated version of raising a baby, and every day has been a reminder of how unbearably fleeting my time as a mom with Cub in our house is.

If you missed a picture I posted of them a few weeks ago, here they are again.

Do you see how huge they’ve gotten? It seems like just yesterday I held their tiny bodies and felt their fragile wings beneath my hands. I felt such a responsibility to keep those little feathery bundles of chirping joy safe and warm. They were so small and defenseless.

Just like Cub was…wasn’t that yesterday?

As a parent, you see that their childhood is unbearably brief.

As Anthony says, “We only have a few more years until Cub realizes we’re not cool.” Excuse me while I sob at this thought. My child is not always going to greet me like I’m a celebrity when I walk in the door.

One day my baby will be a teenager. I just keep praying he will know how deeply we love him and make godly choices when that time comes.

As for our chicks, they have already passed into their teenage phase and teenage rebellion.

You remember it, don’t you? The thrill of bucking the system as a teenager? The despair and terror that invariably followed when you realized you did something that wasn’t in your best interests?

That’s where my chicks seem to be at right now. After about a week in their original container, we saw them congregating to make an escape plan. The following day, the first escape happened. I was in the kitchen and heard Cub’s innocent and earnest voice shout out, “Mommy, the chick got out! Mommy, come get the chick!” from the living room, where we are currently keeping them.

I found the baby chick outside their box and chased her around the container a few times before getting a good enough grip to pick her up. I returned her to the group and cleaned up the poop she’d dropped as soon as she got out.

“Our chicks are already teenagers,” I told Anthony on the phone. “They’re already sneaking out of their house. That came fast.”

Then I prayed, Dear Lord, please let Jacob be so happy in our home as he gets older that he’ll never want to sneak out. Let him be an example of your goodness and love for other teenagers when that life stage arrives.

Then, a week later, I heard alarmed chirping. Something is wrong with her I thought.

When I got to the living room, I saw her. She was frantically running around outside the bin, pooping and peeing everywhere (it’s amazing how much such tiny creatures poop and pee), and chirping madly.

She was overwhelmed by her loneliness and sudden freedom.

We’re the same, aren’t we?

I wasn’t a perfect kid. I wasn’t bad, but I did things I pray Jacob never attempts.

The results of this were always disastrous. Always painful, either physically or emotionally. And always lonely, even when some of my friends were doing some of the same things.

I wouldn’t want to repeat my own teenage years, and I have written prior posts on here about what a relief it was to me when my 20s ended. When people express something to the effect of how they wish they could be young again, all I can think is, “Oh dear Lord, never again, please.”

This is why I’ve prayed that Jacob follows God all the days of his life since I became aware I was pregnant. I have started to pray for all of our descendants the same way in the past few months.

Does that sound grandiose? I felt like it was at first. You can’t pray that all your descendants follow God, silly woman! was my first thought. Then I thought, well why not?

Every night, this is part of my prayer, as Jacob snuggles between me and Anthony:

Lord, thank you for this family. We ask for your blessing upon us, and a special blessing for Jacob and all our descendants, that they would follow you all the days of their lives.

I know that our kids and future descendants all have free will, but I also know God honors prayer, so I’m going to keep praying that prayer.

Thanks to our baby chicks, I’ve also gotten more serious about praying that Jacob’s future wife will be godly, because she will be here before we know it. And while I know that it’s biblical for Jacob to leave and cleave when that time comes, it’s tearing me apart right now.

Life is a vapor, and active motherhood years even more so. So I just keep praying.

What pray do you pray over your children and grandchildren, currently existing or for the future? Please let me know any powerful prayers you’ve discovered in the comments! I am always happy to add to my prayer repertoire.

Thank you for sharing!

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