Motherhood is Victory

From Rachel J. on Desiring God:

The whole thing:
Motherhood is Victory

"The sacrifices we make every day are not made in a losing battle. They are the sacrifices of the victorious. They are the cost of a winning war.

God does not share our sentimental view of motherhood. While he delights in children, he does not speak of them in some cutesy photo shoot kind of a way. He compares them, not to tiny fairies, or dewey flowers, but to arrows. To weapons in the hand of a mighty man.

God does not tell us to desire the blessing of children because their cheerful voices will make our houses feel cozy. He tells us to desire children who will contend with the enemy in the gate.

It is natural and good that we delight in the little things with our children. God didn’t command mothers to rejoice over elbow dimples and the smell of a new baby’s head. He didn’t tell us to smile over them while they sleep, or to love the way they look in footie pajamas. He didn’t tell us these things, because He didn’t have to. That is the natural love of a mother for her children.

But the love that we need, the reminders we need, is to love them, not for our own sake, but for what God is doing through them. We need a supernatural love. We need to believe in the victory, to mother in faithful confidence.

“Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies. That thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger" (Psalm 8:2).

These mouths we are feeding — these are the mouths that God has ordained to use to silence the enemy.

The victory is ours, because the Savior is ours."