Breastfeeding is Beautiful!!

A friend of mine is insanely modest. She will let you know every time something you wear is bothering her. Her little comments were annoying before I had Jacob. I am not an immodest person and just because my level of modesty does not meet her standards does not mean that it is offensive to all. I've just ignored her...up until recently. Now that Jacob is here I am breastfeeding and though I do it discreetly and modestly at MOST times...there are times he pulls on my shirt or pulls away to see what is going on. This does not bother me, but she was incredibly offended by it and always tries to shield me from the group. It has been so annoying so I said to her the last time she said something that I was using my breasts in the way that God intended them to be used and that they were useful for more than just selling beer. Her point was the guys in our group could only see them as sexual and I should not be allowing them to see me that way. I was a little offended by this and I have been tired of just ignoring it. So the last time I saw her I told her that I understood she was offended by my breastfeeding and that I try to keep modest because I know it offends her. I told her that to me it's getting to the point where I'd just rather not be around her even though I love her and our friendship because her attempt to shelter others from seeing me that she is pushing me away.

Here is what she replied. 

I've been thinking about what you said about the breastfeeding issue, and
you made a very good point. I haven't done a very good job of
communicating the respect and acceptance I have of you while acknowledging
our difference of opinion. You are beautifully devoted to Jacob, and I'm
so glad that he has parents who are making him the priority he deserves to
be. In several areas of my life lately, the issue of embracing people of
differring convictions has been cropping up, so it seems like God's trying
to teach me something. I have a hard time agreeing to disagree and
leaving it at that. In our Bible study, we've been learning about
Christians being people who differ in non-essential matters, but who come
together because they agree on the most important thing of all: loving and
worshipping God. Its so much easier to talk about than it is to put it
into practice; I just hope I can learn how to do this before I wreck
friendships that are important to me. Its hard enough to be patient with
myself---its gotta be that much harder for you. If you have any
suggestions for how to better support you, let me know.


It made me feel good for telling her rather than just slowing slipping from this friendship. Yay for that little victory and learning day by day to stand up for myself because I should and can.