Let us pray for the saints to foster the new believers as a nursing mother and as an exhorting father

Just as you know how we were to each one of you, as a father to his own children, exhorting you and consoling you and testifying. 1 Thes. 2:11

Dear saints, let us pray that the saints would follow the apostle’s pattern to foster the new believers as a nursing mother cherishes her own children and as a father exhorts, consoles, and testifies to his own children (1 Thes. 2:6-8, 11).

In verse 8 Paul continues, “Thus, yearning over you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own souls, because you became beloved to us.” The word yearning indicates being affectionately fond of, affectionately desirous of, like a nursing mother affectionately interested in her child whom she nourishes and cherishes. This was what the apostles did with the new believers…

Verse 11 says, “Even as you know how we were to each one of you, as a father his own children, entreating you and consoling and testifying.” The apostle was strong in stressing what or how they were (1:5), for what they were opened the way to bring the new converts into God’s full salvation.

In verse 11 Paul likens himself to a father exhorting his children. In cherishing the believers as their own children, the apostles considered themselves as nourishing mothers. In exhorting them, they considered themselves fathers. (Witness Lee, Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, msg. 12, pp. 102-104)

More details via Beseeching.org, day 382.