I have been blessed/cursed with children that suck their thumbs. Grey stopped on his own around his third birthday. Aubry is three and a half and still at it. No end in sight at the moment, which is the cursed part. I love it that they can soothe themselves especially when they're tired in a quiet restaurant. I’ll take a thumb sucker over a screaming baby any day.
I was about to leave Jude with Geoff for a little while and wanted to feed him before I left. It was time for him to eat anyway and he was starting to fuss. But he had popped his thumb in his mouth and he was happy. So happy, in fact, that when I went to feed him, boob in face, he would not let go of the thumb. I literally had my boob on his cheek and he did not make the transfer. It took me prying his thumb out of his mouth for him to make the switch and be fed.
The thumb is just a substitute for the real thing. It soothes, but it does not, like the boob, give us what we need to have life. We will turn to it to ease our worried minds when the boob is right there in our face.
Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible but not everything is constructive. 1 Corinthians 10:23
There are many ways that I soothe myself on a daily basis. From the outside no one would think twice about them. A drink, wasted time in front of the tv or on the computer, a chat with a friend that could lead to gossip or complaining, 5 too many cookies; not full on addictions, but certainly not beneficial or constructive.
In those times I know that a little time spent seeking Jesus and his ways would do more than soothe me, it would feed me. And yet I hold onto that thumb, tight! My ways are soothing in that moment; His ways give life. It is a choice I have to make. Then I have to be willing to let God pry my thumb out of my mouth. It’s not fun, but it will save my life.
A great book I read called “Addiction and Grace” by Gerald May says that it’s in those moments where addictions are born. They start very small with one drink, or one cigarette, and within a short time you’re regularly turning to that thing to soothe you. Jesus says that he is The Life (John 14:6), and that he came that we may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). Lord, let us turn to you in those moments. Pry the thumbs out of our mouths and give us life.
