DIAPERS — Love them or hate them, they are, in fact, an inseparable part of parenthood.

I’ve been pondering the world of diapers and diaper changing lately. Maybe it’s because we’ve been blessed with a growing number of grand-babies this past year and anytime we gather as a family it’s always coupled with lots of diapers and much diaper changing!

I was curious to see if I could actually calculate how many diapers we changed in the 15 straight years of diapering our 8 children. After doing some research and number crunching I discovered that we changed upwards of — drum roll please — 50,000 diapers! I think I’m still recovering from that fact!

Have you ever taken a moment to consider the number of diapers you’ve changed (or will change) over the diapering lifetime of your baby? How about the amount of time you’ve spent (or will spend) changing those diapers? If you’re curious to know, let me help you with some diaper-changing-calculations.

According to my research, your child will go through somewhere between 5,000-7,000 diapers in their little lifetime before being potty trained. Every diaper change takes approximate 3 minutes (give or take a minute or two depending on the ease or complexity of the job ).

That means you, Dear Parent, will spend: 15,000-21,000 minutes changing diapers, which equals 250-350 hours, which equals 10-14 days! And that is for only one child!

If the Lord has ordained this menial and often thankless task for us to do over and over and over and over again for literally hundreds of hours, then maybe it would behoove us to consider redeeming it. Maybe we need to shift our mindset about diaper changing.

What if we began viewing it as a purposeful moment, an act of service, an investment in a soul? To me, that would be the ultimate game changer of diaper changing and it might actually give this very humble duty a beautiful, eternal purpose.

Below are suggested ways we can begin making diaper changing into meaningful work rather than a monotonous task.

1. Express gratitude to the Lord for each of the diaper changing moments you have with your child. Thank Him for your season of parenting, reminding yourself that this season in your child’s life is truly fleeting.
2. Ask the Lord to help you savor and cherish these few minutes with your child (even the stinky ones ).
3. For those of you still in the throes of middle of the night feedings and diaper changes, consider the psalmist’s response to being awake during painfully late hours: “My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I might meditate on your word.” Psalm 119:148
4. Use diaper changing as an opportunity to pray for your child’s salvation, health, spiritual wholeness, future friendships, physical and mental development, and potential future mate.
5. Give your child your full attention and engage. Make eye contact and verbally express your love.
6. Have short, favorite songs ready to sing. By the way, no matter how musically talented or lacking you may be, your voice is your baby’s absolute favorite!
7. Linger with your infant. Caress their face. Gently rub that round tummy. Hold those little legs in your hands. Your loving, human touch is life-giving to your baby. That is by God’s design.
8. Linger with your toddler. When diaper changing is completed, enjoy a moment of playful fun. Give raspberry blows and butterfly kisses. Tickle their tummies and nuzzle those precious cheeks with your nose. Your loving, human touch is life-giving to your toddler. That is by God’s design.
9. Point out and name your baby's different body parts. As they grow, make it a fun game during diaper changing moments. “Where is baby’s belly button?” “Where is baby’s feet?” “Where is baby’s nose?” They will love this and will be learning name recognition in the process.
10. Use diaper changing as an opportunity to cultivate servant hearts in older siblings. Let them help gather supplies and carefully discard those dirty diapers. Speak about this process in a positive way. Your children will learn to value what you value and hopefully do the same with their own babies one day.
11. Let diaper changing be a child training opportunity for your toddler. Train them to be still…to not turn, wiggle or resist. This will become one of their earliest and most frequent lessons in exercising self-control. Train them to have happy, thankful hearts by encouraging them to say “Thank you” when diaper changing is done. Let them properly discard their own diapers in the trash and help you clean up supplies. Yes, this process may be a bit time consuming but it will pay tremendous dividends down the road! Trust me.
12. Share sweet gospel truths with your baby as you change their diaper. Remind them of your love and God’s love for them. Talk about how He created them uniquely in His image. Tell them about God’s plan for them to love Him and serve Him. Remind your child about God’s glorious creation through nature.
13. Memorize short passages of scriptures you can softly repeat or sing to your child during diaper time. As you do this, you are actually doing the great work of hiding God’s Word in their heart over and over again.

In my 2,500 hours of 50,000 diaper changes I wish I could say that I stewarded them all with joy and thanksgiving. I didn’t. There were many times I resented changing yet another diaper. No diaper change was convenient. I never sprang out of bed in the mornings thinking, “Hallelujah! I get to change more diapers today!” Thankfully, there were times I took the opportunity to cherish my children during those diaper changing moments, I just wish I had done it more.

What I know now that didn’t even cross my mind then is that I, Mary Robbins, will be held accountable for the way I stewarded the gift of those 2,500 hours of diaper changing. And you know what? I can’t get those hours back, I can never go back and do them over again.

But you, dear parent of diapered babies, you can redeem these moments. Let me challenge you to prayerfully consider changing that next diaper (and the thousands thereafter) with greater joy, purpose and intentionality!

In closing, I want to leave you the gift of some beautiful words to inspire you in your diaper-changing-redemption pursuit. This liturgy is framed and mounted on the wall of my granddaughter’s nursery. I pray it blesses you as much as it did me.

A Liturgy of Diaper Changing

From Every Moment Holy
Written By Doug McKelvey