We Can’t Stop Until the Work is Done

After many, many hours of hard labor, my daughter was just exhausted.  She was on the verge of giving up, but she couldn’t….not yet.  The work wasn’t done.  She looked at me, breaking my heart, with her cries for me to help her.  I knew I had to say something to encourage her to keep on going even though she did not have a single ounce of energy left inside her.  Giving up was not an option. 
 

She lay in the hospital bed, suffering…. Not knowing how in the world she was going to get through this … I remember her looking at me with such distress…. waiting….expecting me to save her…….. ah! It was breaking my heart! 

I am not sure what came over me in that moment but in an instant I knew what to say.  I leaned over her and with a firm but caring tone, asking her to look at me.  She looked at me and said, in a trembling voice, “I can’t do this… I can’t!”  I said “You have to do this!  You have a job to do and you have to finish. You are this baby’s mother and your job starts now… right now. When the doctor says it’s time, I need you to dig deep and push as hard as you can.  You can do this!”  With tears running down her little face, she nodded at me, letting me know that she understood….

The doctor asked her if she was ready and she said she was, even after pushing more than an hour already……. Three pushes into it and our precious little miracle was born…. I looked at him as he was coming into the world so limp and then I watched him come to life….ahhh!!  It was the most beautiful…. the most precious thing…He lit up the room just like he does now, a year later,  with his bigger than life personality.   I looked at my daughter with such pride as tears were flowing and she said “I did it!” and I said “Yes, YOU did!!!”    

Words of encouragement help us to achieve things well beyond belief…..resulting in great moments.  Have you ever been encouraged to do something you never thought you could do?  Have you ever encouraged someone else?