Labor Pains

#Thankful Journey Day 4

“I assure you: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. When a woman is in labor she has pain because her time has come. But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world. So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will rob you of your joy. In that day you will not ask Me anything. “I assure you: Anything you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete. John 16:20-24

When I was in labor with my last child, I was in a lot of pain. Being it was my fourth child the doctor and nurses wanted to make me as comfortable as possible meaning they were going to give me lots of pain meds and I thought what a nice gesture. Well, I wasn’t planning on having her naturally, I had an epidural with all my children. Hats off to the women who gave birth naturally, but I did not want to experience that. After my first child using the epidural, it was like heaven, I didn’t feel a thing! At least not until after the meds wore off. So here I was, fourth time around.

Crying from the excruciating contractions, that radiated from the spine of my lower back to the front of my belly button. All I could think of was when are they going to give me the epidural. I waited as close to delivery time as I could until my contractions started coming closer and closer and they would not let up. I would watch the needles draw out the contractions on that hospital graph the nurses would read, and stare at the machine as it went higher and higher at each contraction, meaning the pain was getting stronger and stronger each time. I made a point to bring that to my husbands attention. Lol.

This pain seemed different with this pregnancy because I was in pain months before my due date. I just new that this baby was laying on my bones and I was ready for her to come out. The anesthesiologist finally came and inserted that giant needle in my back to start what I thought would be relief. Not so. The pain medicine was not working! Oh my God! I called the nurse and said I needed something else because the meds were not working so another anesthesiologist came and gave me a spinal, you know the ones they give to women who are to have a C-Section. I didn’t care what they gave me as long as it worked! Well after a few minutes, my legs were numb, but my back and stomach were still giving me the pain signals. I remember crying to my husband. Asking for his hand to squeeze to try and endure the pain. I also started to push against my stomach whenever I felt a contraction to counter the pain and that helped me to endure a bit longer.

I can recall as if it were yesterday when I told God, “if I have to go through with the pain, at least cause her to come quickly”. And can I tell you, she came within the next thirty minutes. In all I had been enduring labor pain for a total of two and a half hours. Not bad when you think of other baby delivery stories you’ve heard.

Little did I know that pregnancy would signify a prophetic season for me and for the body of Christ. Because there are many seasons in our lives when we endure pain on many levels but we have the power to declare the end from the beginning. Our mindset should be, “Lord, if I must go through this tough situation, please help me to endure through it and let me come out of this situation quickly”.

The scripture says when a woman is in labor she has pain because her time has come! If you are experiencing pain, your time has come! But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the suffering because of the JOY that a person has been born into the world. I am about to get a little graphic here but I must try to drive this point home. When I was pushing, the doctor would coach me through and tell me to push as hard as I can every time I have a contraction and so I did as instructed. I did not want to delay the process if I had the power to push her out. I was determined to get this over with!

At times, I pushed when I was not supposed to and the doctor would yell at me to stop as I could hurt the baby and myself. Sometimes, we need to yield to the direction of Gods Holy Spirit as he leads us towards the right path to our expected end. God has the best plans for us, he knows the outcome and will ensure we arrive safely and without regret, hurt or shame. Finally, the doctor says, “this is it, make this last push count”. Okay, even though he said that same line three times before, I was ready to do it! I thought to myself as I’m gritting my teeth, praying to God that this would be it! I pushed for the final time and oh my, I felt as though someone was ripping my insides out and breaking apart my legs at the same time. The pain was literally crawling up my spine to my brain. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to run, I had to deal with the pain and PUSH! But at that last push, I felt the release of her head and the pain lifted from my body as if someone carried it away like a heavy blanket, I sighed deeply with relief! Although her entire body had not been fully removed I felt alleviated of the pain. Everything after that point didn’t matter.

At that moment a deep reverence flooded my soul as they placed her warm naked body on my chest. I was in awe at what had arrived and how blessed I was to have her and my focus shifted from pain to bliss in just seconds.

Jesus told his disciples that they too would experience sorrow but that they would see him again and no one would be able to rob them of their joy, and that they would have need of nothing. That’s how I felt when I looked at my beautiful baby girl. My sorrow was turned to joy. I didn’t need anything else, my joy was complete. I was truly happy.

Jesus said to his disciples, “I assure you”. Assure means to declare earnestly to; inform or tell positively; state with confidence to: to pledge or promise; give surety of; to guarantee. Now we know anything Jesus guarantees is a done deal. Has God guaranteed some promises to you? Are you asking? Ask so that your joy may be full.

I am #happy and #grateful that when I ask God hears and and I have full joy even through adverse circumstances.

What are you thankful for?