Ministry of Motherhood

And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the LORD. For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD (1 Samuel 1:26-28).

We are living in a day when most people honor their mothers on Mother’s Day, yet many women are deciding not to be mothers. To have a childless marriage is increasingly the choice of many couples. Fifty thousand babies are aborted every year! Oh, so selfish! We need to honor not only mothers, but also motherhood.

I wonder how childless couples will feel when they approach old age, with no one close to care? No little children to hold? No grandchildren in which to boast, with no pictures to proudly show?

Yes, they will have things, but few relationships.

Rachel said,”Give me children else I die.”

The world is devaluing the home and the value of the homemaker. Society is calling to our wives to assert themselves, to go out into the professional world and to make a name for themselves. Our culture says, “Don’t be subservient to your husband! Be independent–be your own person!”

God’s voice still rings: “And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye might prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). Another version states: “Be not squeezed into the world’s mold.”

What is happening to our families is not good. It is not acceptable and it certainly is not the perfect will of God. God designed families. “God setteth the solitary in families…” (Psalm 68:6).

God’s plan is that marriage be a union between a man and a woman and that they both be blessed with children. God also planned that the man would be the provider and protector, while the woman would be the homemaker and mother of the children.

How far have we removed ourselves from God’s plan!

When our daughter Tricia was still in elementary school, I encouraged my wife, Lorraine, to go back to school and become a nurse. I figured that it would be the best insurance I could give her. She dutifully went back, and for a time was doing very well – I thought.

One day I came home and found her in tears. As she sobbed, she cried out in an accusing voice, “I don’t want to go to school! I want to stay home and be just (please, don’t ever say, ‘just’) a homemaker! The only reason I am doing this is because you asked me to!” Since then, she has been at home and has spoiled the whole family rotten. I’m so glad she continues to make my home a sanctuary.

God has placed within the breast of every normal woman the desire for children. Just a few years back, Connie Chung, a nationally known and successful newsperson (the politically correct word)–at the age of approximately thirty-five–asked for a year off in order to have a child. Success did not fill the void.

I remember well one of my single teachers coming into my office and telling me that she felt so unfulfilled because she did not have a child. Another single teacher went to South America in order to adopt two children.

Most experts agree that it is best for the baby if a new mother will take a maternity leave in order to spend a few months with her new child. We now know that the first eighteen months may be the most important months in a child’s life, for it is during this time that a baby “bonds” to his mother. If there is no bonding, there is a high likelihood that the child will have emotional problems for the rest of his life.

The question is, what happens when it is time for the mother to go back to work? National speaker Zig Ziglar cites studies which show that, “emotionally and subconsciously a mother who knows she must go back to work and leave her baby builds a wall of resistance against the hurt she will feel.” The child feels it as rejection and distance.

Every child deserves to be born. Every child, also, deserves to have a mother at home with fresh cookies on the counter when they get home from school.

“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea they may forget, yet I will not forget thee” (Isaiah 49:15).