just thinking out-loud

As the time draws closer to bring our little boy home, I get more and more excited. Not only because I will be a mother, and NOT because we’re attempting to fill some void in our marriage…no, my excitement bubbles up from an expectancy that really has very little to do with me at all…

So, what is my idea of motherhood?
Motherhood, whether through birth or adoption, is a gift from God. And I believe that each individual combination of mother and child(ren) is ordained by God, and that each combination is pregnant with purpose, and hope.

And why do I strive to be a mother?
That’s a good question. My answer today is probably much different than it would have been several years ago (and, hopefully, this answer will mature increasingly in the years to come).

But my answer today is: hope.

Not ‘wishful-thinking’ hope, but ‘expecting’ hope. When I look back over my life and contemplate how God has revealed Himself to me through circumstances and relationships, I am able to put together the pieces of something very deliberate. A process. A purpose. I struggle to put it into words.

There is a great joy and certain satisfaction found when the meaning of life is grasped – there’s even greater significance when you’ve drawn near to the Creator of life. Through God’s Word, prayer and fellowship with other Christ-followers, I’ve intimately experienced the very character and essence of God. And it is in knowing God that I have been consumed by this ‘expecting’ hope.
And from this God-given hope, a hunger for motherhood has also surfaced. Again, God’s plan:

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…"
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

And God blessed them.
And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…”

See the progression? God blesses and commands to mankind to multiply and fill the earth. But what was it that God blessed? Look closely: the creation, in His own image and likeness…this is what He desires to be duplicated!! Not simply our mutated genes that proliferate disease and indifference, but His perfect holiness.

Wow. Where am I going with this?

A mother can fulfill many roles, but after studying God’s Word, I believe a ‘mother’ is at foremost a ‘teacher’. “…forsake not your mother’s teaching. Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.” (Pr 6:20-22)

My hope for motherhood is to be obedient to God, and faithful to my children. Obedient to God’s purpose for me to live a holy life, and faithfulness to teach my children God’s precepts and wisdom. I fight every day to not numbly coast through life, but to be proactive, deliberate, purposeful.

What is my hope?

Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed…
Prov 31:25-28