This past Thursday night my wife and I where sitting on the couch watching TV, and I felt my self getting very excited to get to spend the whole day with my daughter. Her personality has really started to blossom and not to mention she is very mobile now. Add that with being curious and an adventurer and you have yourself a great Friday. Needless to say, my Friday had been an adventure.
Teething is hard to deal with as a parent. So is a stomach ache, mixed with a cold due to the drastic change in weather. If you hadn't guessed yet, my daughter, Sadie, experienced all three, in one day. Let me just say, I have never felt more hopeless and scared in my entire life.
In the last three months my wife and I have found that there are three things that usually work to calm Sadie down when she is in distress. We either feed her, change her diaper, or snuggle her until she starts to fall asleep. Sadie began her distress call at 1:45 PM. Dad mode set in, after all I have been through this routine so many times, seeing as I watch her every Monday, so I went into Sadie's room feeling very confident that I would have her soothed and calm in no time. Yeah I was wrong.
Started with the feeding, because with Sadie that's just where you go first. The good kind of worked but wasn't enough, so I on to step two. The diaper change happened swiftly and promptly and Sadie was still in distress. So I sprung into action, scooped her up and cuddled her. All seemed to be fine for the first four seconds and then more cries for help. I began bouncing her up and down as I walked the hallway. I would rock her while rubbing her back. Nothing was seeming to work and I was out of options.
It wasn't until the last time that I tried cuddling her that I realized what she was doing. As I would lightly bounce her in my arms I realized that she had the tightest grip on my shirt and she was not letting go for anything. It was in that moment that I realized there was nothing she wanted me to do but hold her.
And that is exactly what I did. I held her and would whisper in her ear that everything was going to be okay that daddy had her and I wasn't going anywhere. She slowly drifted to sleep and I was finally able to put her in her crib. I never felt more proud in my life. That was until 45 minutes later when she woke up again with the same drastic cry for help that I heard early in the afternoon. I had started on another project, actually I had started writing this post, and as a result of her crying out for help, I put my plans on hold and came to her rescue to let her know that dad was still here.
I couldn't help but think that God does the same for me. I "cry out" in distress, wanting to know that everything is going to be okay. When family members are going through medical issues, when Sadie has her teething days, when work is just very overwhelming, when the enemy plants thoughts that God didn't call me to Warsaw, that I made a mistake, I can cry out to God and he comforts me.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 speaks very clearly that God comforts us in our afflictions and in Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus is very clear that he wants those who feel weary or heavy burdened to come to him so that they may find rest. God wants you to call out to him. He hears you the same way a parent hears the cries of their 9 month old baby calling out for help and comfort.
It really is that easy. Simply cry out to God. It does not matter what you are struggling with. Maybe you are so deep into pornography that you don't know what is true love anymore. Maybe you are so frustrated with your marriage that you consistently have to work late so you don't have to be around your spouse. Maybe you have just been rejected to many times that you don't care, you'll find "love" from anyone or anything that will give it to you. God wants to be the one to comfort you in those hurting times. God wants to be the one whom you cry out to when you are hurting. He won't ignore your cries, he hears you, so cry out to him!
I couldn't help but think that God does the same for me. I "cry out" in distress, wanting to know that everything is going to be okay. When family members are going through medical issues, when Sadie has her teething days, when work is just very overwhelming, when the enemy plants thoughts that God didn't call me to Warsaw, that I made a mistake, I can cry out to God and he comforts me.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 speaks very clearly that God comforts us in our afflictions and in Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus is very clear that he wants those who feel weary or heavy burdened to come to him so that they may find rest. God wants you to call out to him. He hears you the same way a parent hears the cries of their 9 month old baby calling out for help and comfort.
It really is that easy. Simply cry out to God. It does not matter what you are struggling with. Maybe you are so deep into pornography that you don't know what is true love anymore. Maybe you are so frustrated with your marriage that you consistently have to work late so you don't have to be around your spouse. Maybe you have just been rejected to many times that you don't care, you'll find "love" from anyone or anything that will give it to you. God wants to be the one to comfort you in those hurting times. God wants to be the one whom you cry out to when you are hurting. He won't ignore your cries, he hears you, so cry out to him!
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