Daniel Started Crawling!

Daniel has started crawling! Without him knowing, he was in competition with Josua. Until now Josua has been the record holder for starting to crawl at 7 1/2 months. Needless to say, when it appeared that Daniel would possibly begin crawling at only 7 months , my highly competitive Josua feared his record was going to be shattered. But Daniel only started crawling at 7months and 3 weeks, so Josua is still the Crawling Champion of the Lues Babies!

How interesting that children from the same parents in the same circumstances can differ so much. We have a spectrum of ages at which our babies started crawling, from Josua at 7 1/2 months to Andrew only starting at 15 1/2 months and all the others in-between.

Therefore I'm no advocate of any baby book telling parents at what age children are supposed to do what. For that reason, I also don't go for sonars to 'measure my baby' when I'm pregnant, or rely on those same measurements to tell me when my baby is due, only to end up with an induction at 40 weeks and 3 days and 24 hours later with a caesarean. Children are all individuals, God made them like that. They are supposed to be totally different from anyone else on the planet, from the moment they are conceived, through childhood into adolescence.

So why do we want to measure and compare them even before birth? God made every human being with a purpose in life and how and when they develop is part of that purpose.

My Andrew boy, who only started crawling at 15 1/2 months, walked at 21 months. (Of all my children, he is also the one who needs the least amount of sleep.) Since birth he has slept the bare minimum. He also doesn’t look much like all the other children. His hair is different and his ears are bigger. When I look at him, I can almost 'see' God's unique calling on his life. It may sound strange, but his whole being represents God's purpose for his life.

If I had to listen to clinic sisters, paediatricians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and psychologists concerning my children's development and health, and not rely on and trust God to guide me in the upbringing of my children, they would almost certainly miss their calling in life. These 'medical professionals' are mostly trained to compare your child with the 'average', whatever that is! What is the ‘average’ in God’s kingdom? They are ready to tell you that your baby, toddler, pre-schooler or young child is not measuring up and needs this medication or that therapy to be 'normal' or to fit in.

I'm just thinking of the dozen of young boys that are put on Ritalin every week, because they think and reason differently from their peers.

For this reason we home school our children. A child’s mental development differs from child to child, and even more so in boys. Children don't develop mentally at a constant incremental pace. They will excel in a certain area and then maybe plateau for weeks or months, while they excel in another area. That is not exactly what schools take into account, is it?

Stop comparing your baby.
Stop worrying about when he is going to crawl, when he is going to sleep through the night, when he is going to walk or run, when he will be ready for potty training. Eventually he will do all these.
Stop comparing your pre-schooler with his peers.
Stop worrying about why he is not as clever as his nephew or his brother, when they were at that age.

Most of all, allow your child to be unique, as God intended him to be. Then he can fulfil God's unique purpose for his life, he can exalt God's name and God can receive all the Glory!