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Joel was number 11 when he was born. We now have number 14 on the way, and Lord willing we will have the new addition here in February. Here is the foundation for our belief that children are a blessing, and the reason that we desire for the Lord to give us all the children that He desires to give. I shared this message with our home church this past Mother's day in May.
The Blessing of Motherhood
Psalm 127 “Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.”
The scripture speaks of motherhood as a great blessing. Our modern society needs to return to the truths of scripture. This psalm summarizes God’s viewpoint concerning motherhood and children.
I. The Foundation of Our Lives
The foundation of our lives has to be none other than the Lord God, Jehovah. His name, ‘the divinely communicated name of the Supreme God; that glorious and fearful name by which He is known to His church and people. It expresses the eternity and immutability of the divine nature, and the faithfulness of God to all His purposes and promises.’
Unless the Lord God is the builder of our lives, individually, and also our families, then we truly labor in vain. Our efforts will be meaningless in eternity unless He is the foundation of all that we do. We can build and watch, but it is all vain unless God joins and motivates our building, and unless God keeps watch over out watch.
You can stay up late and rise up early, working, worrying, scheming, but it is all vain without the Lord. He gives His beloved sleep, and they rest in Him.
Picture a child on the sea shore, right next to the tide. He builds a great sand castle, but the tide will soon come in, and what will happen to that great structure of sand? It will be wiped out completely. So it is with a life built on anything but the Lord God, Jehovah, and the living Lord Jesus. It is a life built with sand and the tide of God’s wrath and justice will soon roll in on you and there will be nothing left.
The first order of business in the matter of motherhood is to make sure your personal life is being built on the foundation of Jesus. I Corinthians 3:11 says, “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” All of us, Fathers, sons and daughters, this must be an individual choice. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. May the Lord grant that it be so that we build our lives solidly on the Lord God of heaven.
II. The Facts about Children
It is so important that we grasp what the word of God says about children. We live in a twisted world today. The world hates children. America, for all of its talk, hates children by the way it allows them to be murdered in the womb to the tune of millions of babies killed since Roe v. Wade in 1973. Even the church manifests this negative attitude towards children, the church has not been immune to this deadly trend.
But what does God say about children? Let’s look here in God’s eternal word.
Children are an inheritance.
Children are an inheritance ‘of the Lord.’ They are his inheritance that He graciously bestows on us. An inheritance is something valuable, and when it is the Lord’s, oh how valuable it is.
Every child that we have should be seen as belonging ultimately to the Lord and we should dedicate them to Him. We should not take lightly the fact that we are accountable to God for how we handle His inheritance. Oh, how careful we ought to be to bring our children up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.
Children are Fruit.
Children are referred to in this passage as the fruit of the womb. What a beautiful, biblical phrase for children. Fruit is something good, something pleasant, and something desirable. And so are children for us. They are good for us, they are pleasant to us, and they are to be desired.
If you think about the gardener, he plants his garden with all different kinds of seeds. He plants, and waters, and waits, looking each day to see if his plants will come up out of the ground. He plants all his seeds with the hope that they will one day bring forth fruit. No gardener plants his seeds hoping that they will be barren.
And yet among God’s people today, we encourage barrenness in the womb. We take pills to try to assure that the womb brings forth nothing but barrenness. May God have mercy on His people. We have operations to guarantee barrenness. What a sad state we are in when we hope and even plan for barrenness. May the Lord have mercy on His people, and grant that we fall in love with children and once again see them as fruit to be desired, and not as curses to be shunned.
Children are Rewards
Not only does God call children fruit, but he says that they are His reward. Deuteronomy 7:12-14 says this, “Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers: And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.”
Here a fruitful womb is seen as a reward for faithfulness along with other blessings. It is a demonstration of His goodness that He gives us children as His reward. We see here again the biblical basis for seeing children in a positive light. It may be that in God’s sovereignty a person could have no children or few children. We must trust that He is in control. We must see children as the rewards that God says that they are.
Children are Arrows
Children are arrows in the hand of a mighty man. A mighty man was a man powerful especially in war or in dominion.. A warrior in biblical times would see his arrows as a prize possession. His arrows constituted much delight and joy, as well as protection in battle.
God wants us to see children in the same way. They are our arrows. They are that which we mold to send forth for the glory of God. And it is a great blessing to have a whole quiver full of arrows. If you go out to war, you want your quiver to be as full as can be, in order to be always prepared and ready.
It is a good thing to have many arrows. We should be willing for God to bless us with as many as He sees fit to give. To refuse to give God the freedom in our lives to bless us in this way is to limit our own might and power.
Children are a Source of Happiness
A full quiver becomes a source of happiness. There are very few people who desire unhappiness. If someone is being blessed, they do not usually desire the blessings to stop. Children are a blessing. I Chronicles 26: 4,5 says, “Moreover the sons of Obededom were, Shemaiah the first-born, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third, Sacar the fourth, Nethaneel the fifth, Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peulthai the eighth, for God blessed him.”
May the Lord give us grace to see children as a source of happiness and a blessing, which is God’s viewpoint. And may the Lord give us grace to stop playing God and give Him the freedom to plan our families. In this day and time, that is radical, but it is biblical. And when the bible is radical, so be it, and we should be too.
The world is getting their message out. Here is a quote from University of California biologist Garret Hardin, a leader in the ZPG movement, “How can we reduce reproduction? Persuasion must be tried first. Tomorrow’s mothers must be educated to seek careers other than multiple motherhood. Community nurseries are needed to free women for careers outside the home.”1
And then here is a quote from Planned Parenthood concerning ways to reduce U.S. fertility, “…increased (departure from biblical roles); chronic economic depression; requiring women to work and providing few child care facilities; compulsory sterilization of all who have two children—except for a few who would be allowed to have three; confining childbearing to only a limited number of adults; and stock-certificate type permits for children.” 2 (Parenthesis belong to TM)
It is now time that the church of the living God counter these ungodly philosophies with the sword of the truth. We must be pro-children. God’s plan of I Timothy 5:14 has never changed, and will never change. “I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion of the adversary o speak reproachfully.” It is a satanic doctrine that sees children as a curse.
It is also a sad trend among Christian groups that encourage young ladies to leave the home for so called good reasons. The biblical pattern is for young ladies to stay under their father’s authority and in his home until the Lord gives a godly husband.
Children are a Source of Confidence and Victory
“They shall not be ashamed.” Our children, brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, give us confidence, and they are our source of victory. To speak with the enemies in the gate has the idea of subduing the enemies. Godly children will bring spiritual victory in the world. May the Lord of Heaven make all of the married women in His church to be fruitful and multiply, and see the blessing of motherhood through the precious children that he gives.
John and Charles Wesley were the 15th and 17th born of their mother, Susanna. Only 10 of her children survived. Just imagine is she had stopped at two or three. If she had not allowed God to bless her with Charles, the 17th, then most hymn books would contain a dozen or so less songs than they do. Those dozen songs were written by Charles Wesley. We would not have ‘Blessed be the Name’, ‘Love Divine, All Love Excelling’, ‘O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing’, ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’, and ‘Christ the Lord is Risen Today’.
May it be that we trust God to give us the children He desires. What joy will be ours, what blessing will be in the world, and what victory will be in the church. May God grant us to be obedient to Him.
-From Terry
Footnotes:
1 Mary Pride, The Way Home, p. 81
2 Ibid, p.81
The Blessing of Motherhood
Psalm 127 “Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.”
The scripture speaks of motherhood as a great blessing. Our modern society needs to return to the truths of scripture. This psalm summarizes God’s viewpoint concerning motherhood and children.
I. The Foundation of Our Lives
The foundation of our lives has to be none other than the Lord God, Jehovah. His name, ‘the divinely communicated name of the Supreme God; that glorious and fearful name by which He is known to His church and people. It expresses the eternity and immutability of the divine nature, and the faithfulness of God to all His purposes and promises.’
Unless the Lord God is the builder of our lives, individually, and also our families, then we truly labor in vain. Our efforts will be meaningless in eternity unless He is the foundation of all that we do. We can build and watch, but it is all vain unless God joins and motivates our building, and unless God keeps watch over out watch.
You can stay up late and rise up early, working, worrying, scheming, but it is all vain without the Lord. He gives His beloved sleep, and they rest in Him.
Picture a child on the sea shore, right next to the tide. He builds a great sand castle, but the tide will soon come in, and what will happen to that great structure of sand? It will be wiped out completely. So it is with a life built on anything but the Lord God, Jehovah, and the living Lord Jesus. It is a life built with sand and the tide of God’s wrath and justice will soon roll in on you and there will be nothing left.
The first order of business in the matter of motherhood is to make sure your personal life is being built on the foundation of Jesus. I Corinthians 3:11 says, “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” All of us, Fathers, sons and daughters, this must be an individual choice. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. May the Lord grant that it be so that we build our lives solidly on the Lord God of heaven.
II. The Facts about Children
It is so important that we grasp what the word of God says about children. We live in a twisted world today. The world hates children. America, for all of its talk, hates children by the way it allows them to be murdered in the womb to the tune of millions of babies killed since Roe v. Wade in 1973. Even the church manifests this negative attitude towards children, the church has not been immune to this deadly trend.
But what does God say about children? Let’s look here in God’s eternal word.
Children are an inheritance.
Children are an inheritance ‘of the Lord.’ They are his inheritance that He graciously bestows on us. An inheritance is something valuable, and when it is the Lord’s, oh how valuable it is.
Every child that we have should be seen as belonging ultimately to the Lord and we should dedicate them to Him. We should not take lightly the fact that we are accountable to God for how we handle His inheritance. Oh, how careful we ought to be to bring our children up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.
Children are Fruit.
Children are referred to in this passage as the fruit of the womb. What a beautiful, biblical phrase for children. Fruit is something good, something pleasant, and something desirable. And so are children for us. They are good for us, they are pleasant to us, and they are to be desired.
If you think about the gardener, he plants his garden with all different kinds of seeds. He plants, and waters, and waits, looking each day to see if his plants will come up out of the ground. He plants all his seeds with the hope that they will one day bring forth fruit. No gardener plants his seeds hoping that they will be barren.
And yet among God’s people today, we encourage barrenness in the womb. We take pills to try to assure that the womb brings forth nothing but barrenness. May God have mercy on His people. We have operations to guarantee barrenness. What a sad state we are in when we hope and even plan for barrenness. May the Lord have mercy on His people, and grant that we fall in love with children and once again see them as fruit to be desired, and not as curses to be shunned.
Children are Rewards
Not only does God call children fruit, but he says that they are His reward. Deuteronomy 7:12-14 says this, “Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers: And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.”
Here a fruitful womb is seen as a reward for faithfulness along with other blessings. It is a demonstration of His goodness that He gives us children as His reward. We see here again the biblical basis for seeing children in a positive light. It may be that in God’s sovereignty a person could have no children or few children. We must trust that He is in control. We must see children as the rewards that God says that they are.
Children are Arrows
Children are arrows in the hand of a mighty man. A mighty man was a man powerful especially in war or in dominion.. A warrior in biblical times would see his arrows as a prize possession. His arrows constituted much delight and joy, as well as protection in battle.
God wants us to see children in the same way. They are our arrows. They are that which we mold to send forth for the glory of God. And it is a great blessing to have a whole quiver full of arrows. If you go out to war, you want your quiver to be as full as can be, in order to be always prepared and ready.
It is a good thing to have many arrows. We should be willing for God to bless us with as many as He sees fit to give. To refuse to give God the freedom in our lives to bless us in this way is to limit our own might and power.
Children are a Source of Happiness
A full quiver becomes a source of happiness. There are very few people who desire unhappiness. If someone is being blessed, they do not usually desire the blessings to stop. Children are a blessing. I Chronicles 26: 4,5 says, “Moreover the sons of Obededom were, Shemaiah the first-born, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third, Sacar the fourth, Nethaneel the fifth, Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peulthai the eighth, for God blessed him.”
May the Lord give us grace to see children as a source of happiness and a blessing, which is God’s viewpoint. And may the Lord give us grace to stop playing God and give Him the freedom to plan our families. In this day and time, that is radical, but it is biblical. And when the bible is radical, so be it, and we should be too.
The world is getting their message out. Here is a quote from University of California biologist Garret Hardin, a leader in the ZPG movement, “How can we reduce reproduction? Persuasion must be tried first. Tomorrow’s mothers must be educated to seek careers other than multiple motherhood. Community nurseries are needed to free women for careers outside the home.”1
And then here is a quote from Planned Parenthood concerning ways to reduce U.S. fertility, “…increased (departure from biblical roles); chronic economic depression; requiring women to work and providing few child care facilities; compulsory sterilization of all who have two children—except for a few who would be allowed to have three; confining childbearing to only a limited number of adults; and stock-certificate type permits for children.” 2 (Parenthesis belong to TM)
It is now time that the church of the living God counter these ungodly philosophies with the sword of the truth. We must be pro-children. God’s plan of I Timothy 5:14 has never changed, and will never change. “I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion of the adversary o speak reproachfully.” It is a satanic doctrine that sees children as a curse.
It is also a sad trend among Christian groups that encourage young ladies to leave the home for so called good reasons. The biblical pattern is for young ladies to stay under their father’s authority and in his home until the Lord gives a godly husband.
Children are a Source of Confidence and Victory
“They shall not be ashamed.” Our children, brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, give us confidence, and they are our source of victory. To speak with the enemies in the gate has the idea of subduing the enemies. Godly children will bring spiritual victory in the world. May the Lord of Heaven make all of the married women in His church to be fruitful and multiply, and see the blessing of motherhood through the precious children that he gives.
John and Charles Wesley were the 15th and 17th born of their mother, Susanna. Only 10 of her children survived. Just imagine is she had stopped at two or three. If she had not allowed God to bless her with Charles, the 17th, then most hymn books would contain a dozen or so less songs than they do. Those dozen songs were written by Charles Wesley. We would not have ‘Blessed be the Name’, ‘Love Divine, All Love Excelling’, ‘O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing’, ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’, and ‘Christ the Lord is Risen Today’.
May it be that we trust God to give us the children He desires. What joy will be ours, what blessing will be in the world, and what victory will be in the church. May God grant us to be obedient to Him.
-From Terry
Footnotes:
1 Mary Pride, The Way Home, p. 81
2 Ibid, p.81
Thanks to Vicki Savory for the picture!
4 comments:
Thank you for your passage on motherhood. I am currently writing about motherhood and God's plan for mothers. I believe that motherhood is a gift from God and that it is a blessing. I have been blessed with one that is a year old and one that is on the way, due in September. The trend of my generation would be to stop at two and begin birth control. I have many mixed feelings about birth control. When my husband and I were first married, we chose birth control because of our financial situation. The whole time, I felt wrong for doing it. When we finally decided to stop taking birth control, we were blessed with a child immediately. We haven't taken it anymore and we were blessed with another one ten months later, which I am carrying. I have been struggling with the fact that my education, economics, society, says "only have as many as you can afford". As a one income family, that would be about two. But, from the scriptures, it says that God is in control of our lives and God gives us the blessing to have children. Why would I make myself barren again? Why did I do it in the first place? Thank you so much for your encouragment to mothers. My husband and I truly believe that staying home with our children is important for me to do. The fact that someone else would be raising my child day to day other than I, frightens me. Finances are frightening as well, and the temptation to stop at two, or go to the workforce is always there. But, I look at your family as inspiration. My talents are best used in church, writing dramas, and at home, raising my children. Please continue giving us mothers inspiration. It is nice hearing it from a father.
Ashley
(one of your youth group members at Watson Chapel Baptist Church)
What a beautiful post; every child entrusted to our care, by the Sovereign Lord, is a great blessing. Thank you for giving such a scriptural defense of this very important issue. Blessings!
Thank you so much for sharing this! My husband and I completely agree and I so appreciate your encouraging post. We have been married for four years. Our first child was born 10 months after our wedding and our fourth child is due in about three weeks! We hope to be in your shoes eventually!
Laura
congratulations on your newest one!!
-matt and suzanne parker
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