Discipleship and Breastfeeding

There continues to be a lot of discussion in the world of Christianity about the idea of discipleship and how can we as followers of Christ do a better job of investing in people's lives. There are tons of books and resources out there that have provided myself and others some valuable insight into this quandary. With this abundance of resources I think many of us have gotten away from studying (with a specific guidebook) what God's word has to say on this issue. Today I would like to share with you some ideas that are a result of my mind pondering on just a few verses from 1 Peter 2.

The verses from this chapter that really seem to struck a cord were verses 1-3 and even more specifically verse 2. From this verse I began to wonder about the parallels of breastfeeding and discipleship. Here are some of thoughts that come from those wanderings.

• Someone must be willing and able to provide the milk. Not all mothers want to breastfeed and not all mothers can breastfeed. We also know that women who are not the biological mother can produce milk for an infant. The same is true in discipleship. Not everyone is williing to do it (though we should be just like I personally think all mom's should be willing to do it) and not all of us are best wired to do it.
• Not always on a set schedule. Infants do not always eat on a set schedule though some do develop an eating schedule. Many of us have tried to make disciplining someone something that happens when we want it to as opposed to when it needs to (infants eat when they need to not necessarily when we want them to).
• Breastfeeding passes the health and strength from one generation to the next. Breastfeeding typically gives an infant a stronger immune system sooner. The same is true of discipleship. The "older" generation passes it's knowledge and experiences to the "younger" generation. This should allow the "younger" generation to develop a deeper understanding of God sooner than the previous generation.
• Each child is different when it comes to being ready to move on from breastfeeding. As a discipler we must see each person different and understand that some people will take more time to "get it" than others.
• Sometime there does come a point when the mother must be the one to initiate the end of breastfeeding. Many times we must be the ones who sort of force the younger ones to move on to someone else to get their spiritual development. There can be a variety of reasons for this.
• Breastfeeding is mutually beneficial. Mothers bond with their babies through the process and babies receive a variety of incredible benefits. Discipleship relationships are the same way. Each person will benefit and both will be better long term for the relationship.

I hope these all made sense. What do you think? Have any more thoughts on this, if so please share them with all of us.