Recently I watched this lecture with the children. (You can watch it for free right now) It is a wonderful look at how we are made and just a small window of what Our Creator does inside the secret place that is the womb.
I know getting close to my own time of birth and labor probably has a lot to do with it; contemplating my role as a wife and mother, I mean, especially a home schooling mother. That in itself is a whole different ball of wax. It`s not always fun, and I`m not always thankful. It would be so much easier if I had 2.5 kids I sent off to school each day, like I used to, so that I could write, craft, workout easily, without interruption, go visit friends for several hours, bible study for hours at a time, instead of in little snatches here and there. How often I read of Face Book or hear mothers say they can not wait for school to start back so that they can send them away. I myself have been guilty of this very attitude in the past.
Yet Psalm 127:3 is so clear Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is His reward. Is it really our children who are the problem or is it our own thinking, our own selfish attitude towards the Lord`s blessings upon us?
Why do we as women want to limit God`s favor upon our lives? Why, if we are really honest with ourselves, do we see the role of wife and mother, staying at home, as second rate, as less than what we could or should be, or want for ourselves? Society tells us the feministic lie, we can be all things, bread winner, preacher, mother,wife, and lover, but even as Christian women, knowing what the Lord`s word says, why do we believe all this? Why do we think that we have to compete, with our husbands and each other?
I have heard lovely women say things such as "my last child ruined by body and gave me stretch marks".
The Lord has been working on my heart in this, on so many levels and I feel I am seeing my role, for the first time, as He sees it. It is so amazing that over the last few years I have started to believe my role to be a sacrifice, for my husband, for my children, even for the Lord!
What a lie the devil has draped over my eyes! He is so sneaky that I didn`t even catch it. I am so thankful for God`s Grace and patience in my life.
My role as a wife and a mother is not a burden to be dragged around, but a wonderful gift from our Savior, to be cherished and coddled. I don`t see my stretch marks as a bad thing at all, but a blessing that has taught me so much about what a real woman looks like and what those marks represent, God`s hand upon my life and in my womb. They are an actual sign that God has touched me, I am honored to have them. My heart aches for the young women who refuse to have more than one or two children because they want to keep their figure, (just another of the evil ones lies). How I know they will regret it when they are old, and wrinkled anyway.
Just to have been born a woman is a special blessing. What a privilege it is to be a part of the miracle of life. Every movement of the sweet blessing in my womb is a special gift to be cherished. Evidence of His handy work. How personal a gift. It is a secret gift, in a secret place to be pregnant, even for one day. It is not something that can be fully shared or expressed in words to others.
What an honor to carry this baby, to feel him move and grow inside of me, to see how the other children`s faces light up when they hug my belly or talk about his birth, and then when he is born, to watch him learn and grow, to love him and hold him and nurse him. To see him grow in his relationship with his father and his siblings. To see the Lord`s work in his body and in his life, who could see this role the way the Lord sees it and say " no thank you Lord, that`s enough blessing for us"? How easily we, as women, have been tricked into giving up the precious role of wife and mother. I pray Lord you would reveal your precious gift of being born woman, and the honor of the role of wife and mother to all the women of the world. May we sluff off the lies of the devil and learn to truly cherish and welcome Your gifts into our hearts and lives. AMEN!
