Weaned

On a cold and dreary winter night, my husband drove us to the hospital one last time to meet our youngest daughter. We waited through many hours of labor and into the next day before she was ready to meet us. Patience seemed a fitting name. Her skin was so supple and soft and wanting. Lips stretched and searching for years are now formed and decisive and full. What happened to my babies? She, my youngest, held on the longest. A two and a half year stretch of late nights and early mornings. Many a Sunday we arrived late to Church for the wanting of a babe and her milk. During her first days of life outside the womb, she and I were inseparable for hours at a time. She not only nursed for hours on end, but would sleep so snug against me afterwards, that I couldn’t bear t o move her. We took the longest naps together of any of my babies. I loved it. I cherished it. I knew she would be my last and I savored every moment. I loved watching her breathe. 

Patience Promise - Day 1

She so often has looked up at me and smiled and asked to nurse these past 2 weeks, and it truly is heart-wrenching. I did cave a time or two the first week, but it is official now. I am reminded of how our Lord teaches that there is a time for everything in Ecclesiastes 3:
 ¹There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 ² a time to be born and a time to die,
   a time to plant and a time to uproot,
 ³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
   a time to tear down and a time to build,
 ⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
   a time to mourn and a time to dance,
 ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
 ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
   a time to keep and a time to throw away,
 ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
   a time to be silent and a time to speak,
 ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
   a time for war and a time for peace.

 ⁹ What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. ¹⁴ I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

He has truly made ALL THINGS beautiful in their time. Marriage is BEAUTIFUL. Conception is BEAUTIFUL. Pregnancy is BEAUTIFUL. Labor is BEAUTIFUL. Delivery is BEAUTIFUL. Infancy is BEAUTIFUL. Toddlers and Teens are all BEAUTIFUL.  When we can begin to see this truth lived out, it is then we begin to live out truth ourselves. His truth, which is unfailing, unchanging, unforgettable and totally freeing when lived to the glory of God. His truth, meaning God’s word, is absolute. His infallible word gives life to the dead and hope to the lost and forlorn souls wandering this land still today. They seek answers, yet so many people are looking in the wrong places for relief from their grief and their troubled hearts. These poor folk have not yet weaned themselves from the wiles of this world. The weaning process isn’t easy and can’t be done over night. It takes time and special care. We as God’s people, are called to withdraw from the ways of the pagan.  Paul the apostle said:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Romans 7:15

I know as a Mother I feel this way all too often. Whether it’s because I yelled at a child or I procrastinated on a couple bible lessons, immediately my spirit writhes within me for the sin I committed; yet I daily repeat so many of them. Thankfully, Romans also offers this comfort:  
 ¹There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
 ²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.  Rom.8:1-2

Matthew 26:41
“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 

I have now weaned 7 babies from my breast. What once was my time for nursing has now passed. Even now as I write this it pains me bitterly, yet I know there is a time for everything under the sun. Although we Moms so frequently would love to freeze time or at least slow it down a notch, each new phase of life holds a new adventure. As I press on toward the next phase I cry out to my Heavenly Father for strength to let go and be weaned myself. Blessings.