Motherhood is indeed a blessing and wonderful and brings great joy. In a lot of ways, this is similar for believers and unbelievers alike. It seems as though simply having children is a common grace.
However, motherhood is a spiritual institution. And, as believers in Jesus Christ, we go beyond delighting in this common grace, eventually to come about its fullness, and we see the spiritual side of motherhood; in its entirety: We lose our lives, to find them- In Christ.
God is purifying us and our faith. We do the hard work of teaching and training our children in the ways of God-- we see and acknowledge that Satan is right there too, wanting to kill, steal, and destroy us, our homes, our kids, and our relationships. So we put on the armor of God to fight this battle in the unseen world. We stand, as mothers, always on guard against sin- our sin and the temptation toward it, we train ourselves here to be godly. We pray, we seek God, we're broken down but He builds us up. We seek God's face, heart, wisdom and peace for motherhood, every step of the way. We rejoice, yes, but we do not stand unaware of the spiritual battle for our homes and the children within.
When, I say when, trials, testing, training ground, and temptation come upon us mothers, we're not surprised as if something 'strange' were happening to us. Rather, we Christian mothers have been keeping watch for such events and we're prepared.
Furthermore, undoubtedly, God will use motherhood as a training ground to test and prove the genuineness of our faith.
So, yes, we delight in and rejoice in our children and motherhood, but at an even greater depth than the non-Christian, and we fight the good fight of faith, and run, run the race marked out for each one of us as God has portioned and assigned. We don't compare our 'lot' or portion with another's, no, we fix our eyes on what is before each one of us, and run toward Jesus.
We mothers are being built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, and we are, in all our strengths AND weaknesses, acceptable to God through Christ! Amen!
Because I believe one's thoughts should always stand up to the word of God:
1 Peter 4:12 & 19, 1 Peter 2:4-5, 1 Peter 1:7, Matthew 16:24-25, John 16:33, Philippians 4:19, Ephesians 6:12-13, Hebrews 12:1-2, 2 Corinthians 2:11, proverbs 22:6, 1 Timothy 4:7-8, John 10:10-11, 1 Peter 5:8-10, 2 Corinthians 10:12, proverbs 4:25-27, psalm 87:7, Romans 14:4, James 1:2-4
Enjoy Him!
I hope to log this here to look back upon when my flesh and heart seems to fail me; for it has before and will again. But God will remain the strength of my heart forever. Psalm 73:26
