God’s Love Mirrored in the Breastfeeding Relationship

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Today I rewatched a talk I first heard at a homeschool conference.  The speaker and author, Suzie Andres, mentions how Jesus is kinder and more merciful than you can imagine.  Think of the most loving, gentle and kind person you have ever met.  Doesn’t it make sense that Jesus is infinitely more loving, gentle, merciful and kind even than that person?

I very fondly remember my years of nursing all my children.  I miss it a lot!  Yes, those years were also difficult and overwhelming, and I did not get enough sleep most of the time.  It was hard being on call 24/7 for so many years. However, I would not trade those years of nursing for anything!

Every time you nurse your baby, which can be many, many times per day, you are repeatedly showing the love of Jesus to that child.  You are a being the most loving, kindest, most gentle person you can think of to that baby.  What a gift God has given us to help us grow closer to Him! No wonder Scripture often compares the relationship between a mother and her baby to God’s relationship with us.

Now that I have older children, teens and even an adult son, I notice one advantage breastfeeding has over parenting an older child.  It can be very easy to forget to hug my older children or to neglect that special one on one time with each one.  However, holding and spending time with a nursing child is just automatically built into the breastfeeding relationship.

Just like breastfeeding is good for the mom in terms of decreased risk of breast and ovarian cancer, diabetes, and other illnesses, nursing a baby or toddler also helps mothers see God, too!  Have you ever watched your baby nursing and then suddenly become overcome with love and joy? That is a little gift from God.

Nursing = God’s ❤️