Motherhood

Motherhood has fallen on hard times in our culture. Once considered a high and exalted calling, it is now considered an encumbrance, something that hinders a woman from developing her full potential. Underlying this is a fundamental issue on how we approach life. Is the fundamental issue in life our personal fulfillment or our willingness to love and serve others? On this issue Christianity has historically come down clearly on one side. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Christianity claims the only path to real personal fulfillment is to love and serve others. We serve a God who, though He needed nothing, was willing to leave His throne and a life of perfect joy to become a human being to deliver us from the deadly predicament we were in (John 1:1-18; Philippians 2:5-11; Hebrews 2:9-18). He did this even though we had brought this on ourselves, due to our rebellion against Him (Romans 5:6-8; 3:23-26; Isaiah 64:6). Now He calls on us to be like Him (Ephesians 5:1,2; Romans 8:29; Colossians 3:10).   

It is easy, if our focus is personal fulfillment, to see the issues as money, things, worldly success, and fame. But Scripture sees the most important goal as being a servant to others (Mark 10:42-45; John 13:4-17; Philippians 2:3,4). This changes our perspective not only toward motherhood, but also toward many other things in life. Our goal is not to ensure our own fulfillment, but to live a life of love for God and other people (Matthew 22:37-40; Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:13,14). This is motivated by our love for God (1 John 4:19; Roman 12:1,2; 2 Corinthians 5:14,15) for offering salvation to us through faith (Ephesians 2:8,9; Romans 4:4,5; Philippians 3:9). Also, God works in our live to give us the ability to become who God wants us to be (2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 2:10; 2 Peter 1:3). But how easily we forget that this means living our lives in service to others. This is because we have all we genuinely need in Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:9,10; Ephesians 1:3; Romans 8:37). Therefore, we are called to bring up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4; Deuteronomy 6:7; Proverbs 22:6). Now not having any children myself, I do not feel I can tell people in detail how this should be done. I can only say it is an important task and should not be looked down on or neglected based on the world’s opinion. Because it is God’s opinion that really matters.