Sunday, August 15, 2010

blessed motherhood (originally written october 2009)

i am so blessed by these amazing children. i am truly not worthy to be their mother. but that's what God made me! i know it is who i am. i am fully embracing motherhood, LOVING motherhood, not just loving my children, and there is a difference. i have been hugely changed recently by the "Above Rubies" ministry. a few tidbits of what i've learned that is transforming me to peace in motherhood:

-did you know that "El Shaddai" means almighty breast? yes! "shad" in hebrew is the word for a woman's breast! see, God's beautiful mother-heart is there, too, and women have such honor before God. i am mother, and i believe it is a calling for every woman to embrace motherhood, whether married or not, with children or not. we must get back to how God made us at the beginning.

-speaking of the beginning, when eve was named, she was called "woman," which MEANS... womb-man! our WOMB is THE defining characteristic about us! that is what God wanted to define about us, how can we reject our own womb? i am tired of society belittling mothers and motherhood, and tearing down the honor of the place in the home.

-give me children! was the cry of the Biblical women. oftentimes we reject the many godly offspring God wants to give us, with the excuse of "good stewardship first" (but who placed the priority on stewardship while giving up the natural function of the body to accomplish it?), and then we wonder why our society has gone downhill. we simply don't have the numbers to sustain a christian society! that is not the reason we should try to have a lot of children, however. i don't think we should all try to have as many children as humanly possible. but i have come to see the beauty in completely surrendering your fertility and womb to the one who made them, for those who can accept this. (elizabeth from "raising godly tomatoes" has some good words on this as well.) the Bible warns about exchanging the natural function for that which is unnatural in Romans 1:26, which says,

"For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural"

in this passage, the word for "women" comes from the root word for "breastfeeding." and this is one of only five places in the Bible where that word, thelazo, is used for "woman" instead of the one that means simply "wife." Wow!

as you can see, i've been pondering these things, and all i can say that it is SO freeing to give up all of myself to the Lord! in deuteronomy 28, the Lord promises to bless israel with offspring FIRST, and then he speaks of blessing the fields and the livestock, to provide for those He has given.

4"Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl."

that is a beautiful promise to me. may the Lord give us all patience, grace, and infinite, deep, sweet GOLD in our mothering and fathering.