Weaned

Thanks be to God, I am fairly recovered from that bout with the flu that I had. I am still not functioning at maximum strength, as today’s workout revealed, but I am on the mend. So with renewing energy and the help of God, I shall try to impart to you a brief meditation for this week. Let’s think about this verse:

Psalms 131:2 Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

A baby is born seeking its mother’s breast. The baby needs its mother’s milk. While the child is nursing, it will cry for its mother’s breast. It will sometimes pitch tantrums to have the breast, even when it is not hungry. A child that is still nursing certainly does not behave and quiet itself when it wants the breast. But then comes the weaning. Once the child is weaned, it will behave and quiet itself without ever being given the breast. It has learned to get along contentedly without something that was once so necessary. The weaned child has reached a level of growth so that it can do without something it formerly found so necessary.

The Psalmist in the above verse compares himself to a weaned child. He has reached a level of growth in his life in which he can behave and quiet himself even when doing without things that he once found so necessary. As we grow in life, we should be finding out that things we once thought so indispensable to our welfare, are not so indispensable after all. We find that we no longer have to have this job, or promotion, or house, or car, or relationship to be happy. Growing up is not so much an experience of having more as it is learning to be content with having less. It is learning to let go of things we once cried after. As we grow spiritually, it is amazing how much we discover that we do not have to have to be happy. The Christian who is always whining in discontent and pitching temper tantrums over what he does not have needs to grow. He needs to be weaned!

In commenting on this verse, Matthew Henry said it so well: “When our condition is not to our mind we must bring our mind to our condition; and then we are easy to ourselves and all about us; then our souls are as a weaned child.” Amen! What kind of child of God are you? Are you as a little baby crying for the breast? Or are you as a weaned child, behaved and quiet?