Labor Day

Every mother has a "labor day" story to tell.  Delivering a child into the world is a lot like climbing Mt. Everest.  After accomplishing such a great feat of perseverance and strength you just have to share how you lived to tell about it!  Climbing Everest?!  Ha!  That's for sissies!  Have a baby and then talk to me.

I've heard horror stories of women giving birth to 10 pounders and laboring for days.  If I were one of those ladies I would write a book about it.  I would expect an interview with Oprah, or perhaps a made-for-television movie portraying my many hours of agony!  Thankfully though, I am not one of those women.  My birth stories are far less traumatic.
  
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Ain't That a Wonder, Josh missed the birth of our first child.  Ava was bound and determined to come early.  After being in the hospital for a week trying to delay labor, I sent Josh home, assuring him that nothing was going to happen.  But sure enough, by the wee hours of the morning things were in motion.  The hospital was an hour's drive from our home, so around five o'clock I called Josh and said that he should probably leave by six.  He called back thirty minutes later to ask if he had time to stop for a cup of coffee.  You can imagine his surprise when I cried into the telephone, "It's a girl!"
When Isaac was born Josh was determined to stay right by my side.  He had a front row seat to witness Isaac's butt enter the world.  After the midwife had earlier announced, "this one's gotta head full of hair", we were all quite stunned that he was breech.  Nevertheless, Josh was thrilled... by the position, it wasn't yet certain he had a head, but number two indeed had a weenie!
Piper was our only baby to achieve full-term status.  Weighing in at a puny five pounds, she was my biggest.  Now, I'm not exactly sure what was going on during her delivery, but I'm almost certain I experienced an episode of schizophrenia.  "I can't do this.  I can't do this.  I'M DOIN' THIS, DAMMIT!"

Now, only Almighty knows if we will have a fourth child, but I am quite certain that my days spent fighting through pains of labor are not over.  Even as I write this I feel the urge to push!  You see, there is an ache inside my spirit that insists I share the New Life that was created within me.  However, I tend to yield to indifference because it dulls the intensity of necessity.  I languish and allow the Word that brings new life to die within me.  Because that's what happens when I ignore the command to share the love of Christ... a spiritual miscarriage.  
Like giving real birth, laboring for the Lord will stretch you!  Delivering the truth of God's love to a lost world is a monumental task.  But, if we have the courage to endure, then we could witness the most joyous occasion of all, the miracle of life...eternal life!