A Letter To My Child (on Mothers’ Day 2025)
Canva template credit: @withfaithandlove
Dearest Jireh,
May is the month of your birthday, and also happens to be Mothers’ Day. I remember when I was heavily pregnant with you on Mothers’ Day 3 years back, brimming with excitement that I was no longer going to carry you in my body, but finally in my arms.
You sat comfortably in the womb; too comfortably, in fact, for the doctor’s comfort. That’s still your temperament today, our chill, easy-going, fun-loving, goofy little guy.
Alongside your easy-going nature, you also have a pure zest for life that’s fueled us to really live and love life all over again. What a privilege it is to be your papa and mama, and oh what a joy! We utterly enjoy and benefit from seeing the world from the perspective of your fresh eyes.
You, my boy, are full of curiosity. Coupled with your communicative ability, you’re a nonstop chatterbox. You never run of topics to talk or ask about, and I just want you to know that your endless questions are never an inconvenience to us — sorry that at times I’ve made it seem so.
You are also full of kindness and thought for others. Recently, you’ve been asking “are you okay mama” / “are you okay papa” whenever we even so much as cough a little, and you’ve started to offer a helping hand — with loading the washing machine, taking the dried clothes out to the living room for me to fold, packing up your toys, and sometimes randomly asking, “How can I help you?”
When you accidentally bump into or step on me, you always stop to care for wherever I got hurt, adding on, “I sayang you, mama.” Oh Jireh, I sayang you too. There are so many more of these that I could recount, but I must move on to some other things I want to say in this birthday letter x Mother’s Day letter to you.
You’re turning three in a few weeks. Gosh, you’re only (barely) three, but I forget that so often because you have such a maturity and emotional sensibility about you. Of course, you have your childish tantrums, moods, and sensitivities too. All very normal, and it’s part of being a child. Mama and Papa often forget that we sometimes should not place the amount of expectations we do on you, and we have made so many big asks of you — which you’ve risen up so bravely to on many occasions.
What a miracle you are, Jireh, both in who you are now and how you came to be. We only found out that I had endometriosis as a result of delivering you by c-section. That we conceived you at all naturally and within so few tries was a miracle, doc said. This knowledge humbles me and makes me cherish you all the more, and I’m in awe once again at God’s hand who formed you so intentionally and intimately. Like the song we sing at bedtime together, always always remember God’s hand in your life even from the very beginning of it:
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.Psalm 139:13-14 NIV
So, on the occasion of Mothers’ Day and your birthday coming up, my dear firstborn, my forever baby, my “true love” (as Wai Gong loves to endearingly joke about us), I wish you nothing but the best of life’s experiences, and may you learn to anchor your life in our Lord Jesus.
You may not be of age to decide Jesus for yourself yet, but I believe that even now God is giving you understanding of God-things. Just like how, last night, you bravely said, “God will take care of me,” when we discussed a plan for you to go back to bed should you wake in the middle of the night, instead of waking mama up for company.
Yes, my son. Far beyond the span of my arms, God’s arms will hold you always, in and through all of life. He’s always taking care of you. May this truth burrow and etch itself deep into your soul and inform the way you live now and always.
My dear, dear, Jireh, happy birthday. You are so very loved and cherished by us all.
Love always,
Mama (and I’m sure I speak for papa too)
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