I can still vividly remember the experience of being pregnant with my son. I was young, single and un-saved and my situation was less than ideal but I was excited, nonetheless.

At about six weeks in, however, the sickness started to set in  – terribly. I couldn’t eat anything for the first three months. My blood sugar was so low I would pass out on the train, often waking up to strangers standing over me trying to figure out what happened. Everything smelled horrible. Forget morning sickness, I was nauseous every hour of the day and if I did manage to eat anything, it wouldn’t be two minutes before I would be hurling up the contents in the nearest trash can – and that’s if I could make it to one.

If it sounds miserable – it was.

Then came the swollen feet, the back pains and the sciatic pains that would debilitate me for minutes at a time. (I missed my stop on the train once on my way to work because I couldn’t get up.) The mood swings had me so up and down – I hated everything and everyone… and the nonsensical, uncontrollable tears…

If it sounds hellish – that’s because it was.

Yet through it all, I still awaited the birth of my baby with hope and excitement. I might have wanted the discomfort to leave me but I never wished or prayed for my baby to come any sooner and relieve me of my misery because I knew he had to be fully formed. No matter the pain, I knew the fullness of his development could not be compromised, so I endured it.

Never once did I think about quitting pregnancy. Never once did I think ‘forget this I don’t want this baby anymore’. No matter how the discomfort intensified, I knew in a few months my beautiful bouncing baby boy would arrive and so I went through it.

The pain was just a part of the process to get to the promise.

And so it is with whatever you’re going through right now to bring your dreams to reality. You cannot quit it, you cannot walk away. If you forfeit the pain, you forfeit the promise. And you cannot make it happen any faster than it is supposed to. Try to attain it any sooner and it’s development will be compromised –  either it will be impaired or worse, it will die.

This isn’t only applicable to babies – anything you choose to birth in life will require a birthing process. It will not be comfortable. It’s not designed to be.

But the pain will pass and the wait will be worth it. The process is necessary, hang in there. Your promise is near.

Selah.