31765-motheranddaughter.1200w.tn_.jpg?resize=550%2C287

1. Motherhood is evidence of God’s mercy.

The Bible teaches that God made mankind to be his image bearers. He gave Adam and Eve the royal task of filling the earth with more image bearers of the one, true King.

When our first parents disobeyed God in the garden of Eden, all of their descendants fell into sin along with them. Because of our sin, we all deserve God’s just wrath. Life, therefore, is an undeserved gift from God, never to be presumed or rejected. Motherhood is evidence that God is patient toward us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2. Motherhood is a gift even when your feelings disagree.

Even though we believe what the Bible says about life being an undeserved gift, we often treat the presence of life as the gift we didn’t ask for. The dirty dishes in the sink or the laundry in the basket—evidence of God’s provision for hungry mouths and naked bodies—become a burden. A baby’s cries in the night or a child’s exuberant “outside voice”—evidence of God’s grace to sustain life in this sin-sick world—become an annoyance. Our fickle feelings about the gift of motherhood must submit to God’s truth.

3. “Mother” is a verb.

Whether we have zero biological children or twelve, our opportunities to nurture others and “mother” others in the faith are overwhelming.

Adoptive mothers mother. Fostering mothers mother. Biological mothers mother. Disciple-making women mother. The nurturing work of motherhood is not constrained to biological birth alone.

4. Motherhood is more than you can handle.

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” Mothers know that this isn’t true; raising children to the glory of God is always more than we can handle. We teach our children to sing, “We are weak, but he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me,” and we live out those truths. Our sufficiency comes from Christ, through his gospel, to the praise of his glorious grace.

A mother’s prayerful reliance on Christ shows the world that he is the one who is doing the work, so he gets the glory (not us).

5. Motherhood is not a loss.

If our mothering work is joyful work unto the Lord Jesus, can we say it is a loss in the sense that we are losing something that is of better value to us? Indeed, mothers do lose things—autonomy, physical strength, sleep, money, time—but do we really want those things back when Christ gives us his sufficiency in their place?

With Christ’s joy as our strength, we can rejoice that the thousand deaths to self that we die each day are our servants—midwives that are bringing us gain, an eternal weight of glory. We mothers think we are the ones who are serving, but we are actually the ones who are being served as God uses motherhood to make us more like his Son.

6. Motherhood gives glory to Jesus that echoes in eternity.

Click here to continue reading.

SOURCE: Crosswalk – Gloria Furman is a wife, mother of four, doula, and writer. In 2008 her family moved to the Middle East to plant Redeemer Church of Dubai where her husband, Dave, serves as the pastor. She is the author of Glimpses of GraceTreasuring Christ When Your Hands Are FullThe Pastor’s Wife, and Missional Motherhood, and blogs regularly at the Gospel Coalition andGloriaFurman.com.

Votes: 0
E-mail me when people leave their comments –

Prince Malachi is the founder of The Oracle Network and the Streetwear brand Y.A.H. Apparel

You need to be a member of The Oracle Mag to add comments!

Join The Oracle Mag