As Christians we know that we must pray, that we must rise early every morning to contact the Lord before we get wrapped up with the things of our daily life, that we must read the Bible, that we must not love the world, that we must deny ourself, and etc. Invariably, however, many of us struggle to carry out these imperatives. We can say on New Year’s day that we will make a new resolution to do these things, and we may have a strong start, but after a few weeks, or more likely a few days, we fall behind, get discouraged, and often give up. There is one word that can change everything—newborn babe. A young woman who discovers that she is pregnant or who has just had a baby will amazingly find herself able to do so many things that she was totally unable to do previously. Suddenly she can stop smoking or drinking alcohol so as not to damage her unborn child. Suddenly she is able to deny herself and rise up in the middle of the night to care for her helpless little one, to change a diaper or to prepare a bottle. In fact, she is forced to do it! When we find ourselves falling back in our Christian life, it is likely that we are not participating in the shepherding of others. But if we could turn our attention from ourselves to the care of someone younger or more needy, we will often find that we are forced to contact the Lord in prayer, because we dare not handle this person independent of the Lord. When we are caring for a new believer, we are forced to study the Bible in order to find the answers to the young one’s questions. We must take the time to feed on the Lord and to drink of Him ourselves if we expect to have a supply of spiritual food and drink with which to nourish and refresh others. Our newborn babe in Christ forces us to carry out all the imperatives in the Christian life, yet, at the same time, we surely will have the fullness of joy that the Lord speaks of in John 15, a chapter on fruit-bearing!