There is nothing quite like the joy of watching the little mouth of a newborn search for his mother’s breast as soon as he comes into the world. I have had the privilege of observing the nurture and nourishment of eight little babies from the vantage point of my own home.
The way God created things a child has to spend hours with his mother every day in order to get the nourishment he needs for his little growing body. That is no accident of evolution. That is the design of God. And it tells us a little something about the way God looks at nurture.
Nursing a baby is not just about nourishment, it is about nurture. The importance of the nourishment and nurture of a baby is often misunderstood. Little babies need regular nourishment from their mothers. Little babies need regular nurture for their emotional well-being. God has this designed right into the system.
This is one of the ways we can tell how much time the Creator intended for mothers to spend with their babies. This is one way for a woman to determine how the Creator would have her order her priorities. People should especially respect this. A woman who is nursing and nurturing a baby, needs hours of uninterrupted time with her child. She needs to forgo many other things so she can enjoy those brief precious years when it is her privilege to be the life source for her baby.
We live in a pressure-cooker culture. Women are expected to wear many hats and attend many functions, civic and religious. There are many schedule demands on women and expectations pulling them continually away from where they most need to be. Let’s let mom stay home and nurture her baby in quiet simplicity and order.
This is not to say that there are not times that nursing mothers need time to get out and enjoy some time away from home.
Churches should have special places for nursing mothers. They should be encouraged to keep their nursing babies with them and they should be provided a private place to nurse them at church away from the noise and activity of older babies and toddlers. Wise church leaders will see to it that they have provided a sufficient place for this. Those churches that do will win the appreciation of those who love and their children and desire to give them the best emotional nurturing possible.