Why be a mother?

I had to ask myself that question a few months before I fell pregnant with my first child. As I have already mentioned, I am a purposeful person, I needed a reason to have children. I know it says in the Bible to 'be fruitful and multiply', but that wasn't enough for me. I had grown up without any babies or kids around me, so I didn't know what I would be missing out on if I didn't have kids. It wasn't until I listened to a tape by John MacCarthur called, "Hannah - a Godly Mother" that I found my purpose for having children.

Hannah had been so desperate to have a child, this is what MacArthur said,

"....She wanted a child, she desperately wanted a child. She wanted a child so much that she wept and fasted. Her heart was broken over the fact that she could not have a child, but she didn't have a selfish motive, she didn't want a child to live out her unfulfilled fantasies. She didn't want a child to dress like little Lord Fauntleroy and show off. She didn't want a child to fulfil her own need for love. She wanted a child to give to God..."

And that was what Hannah did, when God gave her Samuel, she gave him back to God 3 years after he was born.

Finally it clicked for me, my purpose for having children was to give them to God. To raise them up for Him, to love Him, know Him, serve Him and live for His glory.

"So she promised God, I'll give You this child, I just want to be fulfilled as a mother, I just want to raise a godly son to give back to Your glory. And if you give him to me, I'll give him back. This is her promise, to present her child to God. That's the essence of a godly mother. While praying for a child she prays for that child not for a wrong reason but a right reason, to turn that child back to God from where the child came. That's the essence of a godly mother...to give the child to God."

So... my purpose for having children, is to raise them up for the glory of God. It is my responsibility to show them who God is, to be an example of Christ to them. They are completely His, He can do with them as He pleases. He has given them to Henry and I to "Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." (Ephesians 6:4) and to teach them the truth of God's word (Deuteronomy 6:7).

In my next post I will write some more about how I was challenged in this area.