" ‘THE NOBLEST AND MOST PRECIOUS WORK' - HONORIING AND ENCOURAGING MOTHERHOOD" - by John Stonestreet and G. Shane Morris, Breakpoint.org, May 9, 2019; http://www.breakpoint.org/2019/05/breakpoint-the-noblest-and-most-precious-work/
Andrea Burke, writing at For the Church, suggests that we’re not always very good at this. As a result, for too many young Christians, cultural attitudes toward motherhood are setting the tone. And it’s not a positive tone. Burke calls motherhood “the one life dream that makes a girl blush.” In her work directing her church’s women’s ministry, Burke regularly sits down with single, young women to talk about the future. They often confess that although they could pursue further education or a successful career in any number of fields, what many of them want is to get married and raise a family.
By Burke’s account, these young women are smart and accomplished. They don’t have to prove anything to anyone. Still, they regularly talk as if choosing to be a wife and mom is a silly cop-out—somehow a waste of their lives. “When a 21-year-old sits across the table from me and tells me that she wants to be a mother,” Burke writes, “she blushes and gives a thousand caveats as to why she knows it’s not the optimal choice.”
Where do young women get this low view of motherhood? Well, look around. According to a New York Times article last year, the average age at which women become mothers is now at a record high—30 or older in some parts of the country. The Times reported this as if it were a good thing, talking up the wonders of a “fulfilling career” and all-but-openly suggesting that the only reason any woman would have children young is because she couldn’t achieve the ideal professional life, and needs a substitute rite of passage to adulthood.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the average birth rate failed to rebound after the Great Recession, and now sits at a rock-bottom 1.77 children per woman on average—that’s down over 16 percent from a decade ago.So now there’s a gap in our culture between the number of children women want to have, and the number they end up having.
The Times explains, “it’s unlikely any future baby boom will be able to fully offset the baby bust of the last 10 years.” This means that “millennial women are likely to experience the largest shortfall in achieved fertility verses their stated family desires of any generation in a long time…”
What does all this have to do with young women embarrassed about wanting to become mothers? Well, they need honesty from us—specifically from their parents, that whatever society says about the wonders of a successful career, they’re statistically likely to regret prioritizing promotions over parenthood.
At BreakPoint.org, my colleague Shane Morris recently wrote a beautiful letter [see link under RESOURCES below] to his six-year-old daughter, in which he encouraged her to think of marriage and motherhood as callings worth pursuing, not as afterthoughts. Shane described how his daughter already is in the habit of tucking her little brother’s trucks to bed. Shane is right in seeing in those nurturing instincts things worth celebrating and cultivating.
His letter reminded me of Martin Luther’s praise for nurturing tendencies in his commentary on Genesis: “How becomingly even little girls carry infants in their arms,” he wrote. “And how appropriate are the gestures with which mothers dandle the little ones when they hush a crying infant or lay it in the cradle…” Elsewhere he says: “In all the world this is the noblest and most precious work.”
If you’ve got daughters (like I do) or granddaughters or even nieces, proudly tell these young women that if motherhood is their dream, they’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.
[italics and colored emphasis mine]
RESOURCES
"The One Life Dream That Makes a Girl Blush" - Andrea Burke | For the Church | March 22, 2019; https://ftc.co/resource-library/blog-entries/the-one-life-dream-that-makes-a-girl-blush
"A Letter to My Daughter: Don’t Make Motherhood an Afterthought" - Shane Morris | BreakPoint.org | March 4, 2019; http://www.breakpoint.org/2019/03/a-letter-to-my-daughter-dont-make-motherhood-an-afterthought/
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PRAYER MATTERS:
"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against
the disorder of the world. - Karl Barth
"Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory. Intercession is the one of the great privileges AND responsibilities for EVERY believer." - Stan
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Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/
On the world’s second-largest continent, Christians throughout Africa are enduring severe persecution. In May, Open Doors is focusing on African believers suffering from both oppression
and physical violence. Please join us in praying with our brothers and sisters in these places where peace is elusive and conflict is ever-present.
May 12 | MOTHER’S DAY - Throughout the world, women and young girls face double
persecution—for both their gender and their faith. Pray that we would all stand with these mothers and children.
*Names changed to protect identities
and physical violence. Please join us in praying with our brothers and sisters in these places where peace is elusive and conflict is ever-present.
May 12 | MOTHER’S DAY - Throughout the world, women and young girls face double
persecution—for both their gender and their faith. Pray that we would all stand with these mothers and children.
*Names changed to protect identities
