The Truth behind the Calling

What was the first thing that came to mind when you found out you were pregnant? There's so many feelings that come along with being a new mother, but the greatest feeling that you should have is confidence! Why? Because the Creator of Life gave you the responsibility of becoming a giver of life. Pretty amazing right!? A woman's greatest calling is as a life-giver. Immediately we think of life-giving through pregnancy and birth. Our babies are kept alive in our womb by our very own bodies, only we can bring them into this world, and once they are born they are still very dependant on us for survival. But, surprisingly, this call to physical life-giving is not what makes a mother. It's the emotional life-giving and the spiritual life-giving that God has called us to.

I Timothy 2:15 sums up perfectly the calling behind becoming a mother. "Women shall be saved through the bearing of children." Interesting verse isn't it? It's one that repeats itself constantly throughout the daily battle of motherhood. One thing that I noticed very early into motherhood was the personality of God. Let me rephrase, I was forced to understand who God is by actually feeling on some small level what it is like to be Him. In a strange twist I had been given the responsibilities over my children that God Himself has over His creation. And the other strange twist, my children are the spitting image of sin. They are cuter versions of my husband and I on the outside, but let me tell you on the inside they are a deep, dark pit. There is a reason for this that, well, I guess I just never rationalized. They do not know God. We are born sinful creatures, but even beyond that we are born without a godly alternative to that sin. In other words, if you do not show God to your children you will, in every sense of the word, be raising little devils. Now there was no head-spinning, pea soup spitting, craziness. And I was able from day one to begin instilling a sense of "God" into my children, so we have not had to deal with too much of their sin nature. But do you see now why motherhood is so important? Can you see how great of a responsibility we have been given?

The simple act of smiling at a crying baby shows them the "unconditional" love. With my smile I am telling them "Even when you are upset, I still love you and it doesn't change my feelings for you."
By learning their hungar cues and feeding them before they get to the point of starvation, I am teaching my children that someone is there to provide for them and that they do not have to depend on themselves. And by cherishing every late night feeding session no matter how tired I am, I am teaching them that I will always put them first. Whether it's changing a poopy diaper, making them a peanut butter sandwich because they don't like the dinner I've slaved over the past 3 hours, reading them that extra book when all I want to do is soak in a hot bath and go to bed, it all matters!
Every single act I do is teaching my children about God and is in return giving them life!

That's the true calling of motherhood: to show God to our children, to raise them in His will, to bring them spiritual life. As a mother we are granted the greatest gift of all, not only having the opportunity to be God to others, but having God revealed to us on a daily basis through our relationship with our children. In return we will be saved from a life of selfishness, of anger, of godlessness.