The Days of Discipline

[Victoria] We're getting Charlotte on a new schedule and it's amazing how well it's working for her, and for us. We've been blessed to have a baby that has slept through the night about eight to nine hours since she was around 6-7 weeks old. Now at twelve weeks this week she's started sleeping 10-11 hours a night. It's an incredible thing as a parent to be able to put her down for the night at 8pm after a 7:30am feeding and get to sleep until she wakes up at 7am. AMAZING!! I'm not sure if it's because we allow her to "cry it out" during naps - which she still gets four of each day - and at bedtime, or if we just have a really good sleeper on our hands, but I'll count my blessings regardless.

Although, somehow even though it's been like this for weeks now, the times she cries before nap time and bedtime (rarely even ten minutes) are getting more difficult for me. I would think that I would get more used to it and even immune to it after time. But, I guess I expected it to slow down or stop all together and now that it hasn't, I think something might be wrong with the equation. When in reality, that's just the life of an baby. The alternative would be to rock her to sleep each time she goes down and to never let her fuss or cry for anything, but then that would be a life for me of getting absolutely nothing done and feeling ruled by my little one. My belief is that we are supposed to lovingly discipline our children and teach them with godly leadership, and that teaching them that they aren't the center of the universe is the start of this process. After just about every nap and each morning she wakes up with a huge smile on her face and is rarely fussy during the day until it's mealtime, so I'm fairly sure we have a pretty well adjusted baby who know's she's loved and well cared for. But, it's still difficult each time to hear her laying there in her crib crying, even if it is only for a brief 5-10 minute period.

I wonder if that's how the Lord feels with us when he finds it necessary to discipline us for our own good. Is it hard for him when we cry out and the discipline feels painful. Knowing the great love he has for his children, I can imagine it is difficult for him like it is with me and Charlotte. Just because it's hard doesn't mean it's the wrong thing to do - sometimes quite the opposite. In my Bible study recently, our teacher made a comment that "we should not think of love and suffering as incompatible". How very true - for it was by the suffering of Christ in his death and resurrection that brought us the greatest love we could ever know in our salvation. The author of Hebrews talks about godly discipline in Hebrews 12 and how the Lord disciplines those he loves, going on to say in verse 11 that "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." That's my aim for Charlotte, to help produce in her a harvest of righteousness and peace. It never says it's easy for the one who is doing the disciplining, and I can't neglect my duty as a parent to bring her up in this way by backing out when it gets too hard for me. So, I look to the days ahead when there will be no more crying at nap time and bed time and will savor the smiles and coos and lovie cuddles I get with her each day now. And I will continue to look ahead to the day when all the crying everywhere will cease to exist, when our Lord returns and draws all his children back to himself. Revelation 21:1-5.