A breast-fed baby is generally more clingy to his mama. He sees her as the primary source of comfort, or perhaps, the only comfort. Jeshua has been and is still being breastfed at the age of 18 months. My wife is simply awesome!
The setback is that whenever my wife is not around, he will be upset because his source of comfort is absent. As his father, I can be his playmate, but I can't replace the role of his mama when it comes to comfort.
As he is still unwell today, I decided not to place him with his nanny. Since it's my rest day, I can take care of him.
He woke up early at 7.30am. I had to wake up with him even though I slept at 2plus am this morning after sending my mentee off for his overseas studies. After cleaning him up, brushing his teeth and changing his clothes and diaper, I gave him a little brekkie. He didn't eat much as he probably didn't have much appetite.
After watching his favorite Hi-Fi DVD show, we played at his play mat area. Time flew quickly. Before long, I brought him to the bathroom and showered him. He simply loves to play with water during his bath time. That reminds me of writing another blog post on this.
After his shower, he started crying and looking for mama. I tried all that I could to calm him down - scooped up his porridge to feed him but he rejected; pointed to the TV but he shook his head; asked him if he wanted formula milk (since mama is not around) and he shook his head again; brought him to the master bedroom and he cried even louder; gave him various toys and objects but he continued to cry; tried to read story books to him yet he didn't stop crying; did very stupid actions and things to try to make him laugh but failed badly; passed him water to drink but he didn't want either; carried him and walked around but he kept crying non-stop. It seemed that nothing that I did would calm him down. He was relentless in looking for his mama.
Having tried all my ways, I decided to just sit beside him and let him cry, hoping that he would somehow be tired and stop crying. It just didn't happen. He went on and on. I told myself, "Since nothing works, I'll just not respond and see if he would quieten down himself." I sat there for a while before the Holy Spirit spoke to me gently. "If you are crying, would the Father not respond to you?"
I replied in my heart, "No. He will always respond."
He said, "Do you think you should respond?"
I argued, "Yes, I should. But I have responded and tried all that I could. What else can I do?"
He answered, "Your son is looking for comfort. If your wife is not around, who's the next person to comfort him? Carry him and give him comfort."
I was thinking, "I already carried him just now but it didn't work. But since God spoke to me, I'll try."
I looked at Jeshua, carried him and gently stroke my right palm against his back. Within a few seconds, he stopped crying altogether!
After another 10-15 minutes, he slept on my arm. Yes... Even now.
God the Father is always responsive. He is our source of comfort and He desires to comfort us at all times. However, we sometimes get caught up with what we think is our source of comfort. We find comfort in many other things but God. As a result, when those things are not with us, we lose our source of comfort. We miss out God the Comforter, who is eagerly waiting to comfort us.
My son was so caught up with the comfort of his mama that he missed out his father's presence and the possibility of being comforted by his father.
Yet the heart of God is for me to show Jeshua that He always desires to comfort him.
What good news! We have a heavenly Father who is relentless when it comes to giving us comfort!
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