Sisterly Love

Brooke

Brooke on Her New Bike

It is 4 in the morning and Caleb is crying!

Amanda and I are laying in bed wondering when he will quit and what we should do.  Caleb loves to nurse.  He is 9 months and still likes to eat in the night!  He is our fourth and we have done the worst of all with sleep training.  We are really trying to get him to sleeping better.  We don’t know what a full night of sleep feels like, especially Amanda who has had to feed him twice on many nights.

Last night, Caleb ate around midnight and then went back to sleep.  He awoke again a little after 4.  Amanda went and checked on him and decided he was not hungry. She rocked him and tried to get him to sleep to no avail.  I waited and tried standing over the bed holding the paci in and patting his back.  It didn’t work.  I tried rocking him too.  It also didn’t work.  So he is crying a slow, mad cry. You know the kind of cry that says, “I know you are in your bed and I want to be too!”  We are in bed listening!

Caleb’s bed is in Brooke’s room.  Brooke is our 6 year old little girl who can sleep heavy and most nights does not wake up when we are doing our constant in-and-out of the room and Caleb’s crying.  But last night, while we were laying there we hear, “Caaaalllllleeeeebbbbbb”  in the softest, sweetest voice.  She says it a couple of times to soothe her brother.  Then she starts singing Jesus Loves Me.  Caleb got so quiet.  He was just listening.  Eventually Caleb started crying again.  We soothed him some more, but he resisted.  Brooke was moved to the boys room so she could sleep in peace.  Within a few more minutes Caleb drifted off to sleep and we did too!

But we both were moved by the sweet expression of love from a sister to a brother.  Brooke is a little mother already.  She was given such a gift to love and nurture.  When many would have awoken in a grumpy stupor, Brooke awoke and expressed love and care.  She made us proud and gave us something to smile about at 4 in the morning!

Us adults need more of this kind of love for our brothers and sisters!  When they frustrate us, offend us, even cry harsh words at us; let us react with calm voices and sing to them with our words and actions–Jesus loves you. Remember our Lord said the world would know we are His disciples when we love one another (John 13:35).   

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