I had the awesome opportunity to run into Mr. Brent Nelson from the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood last week as I stopped by their office in Louisville, KY. I had no appointment, and really had little more than a half-brain-stormed idea that I brought with me to discuss, but Mr. Nelson was extremely warm, welcoming, and willing to examine the issue with me in a way that was very encouraging.
All that being said, I thought it quite providential that I came across this article that Nelson posted today examining the recent USA TODAY article on fact that more U.S. women are having fewer children. His argument is short, sweet, and to the Scriptural point: motherhood, children, and the global fame of Christ are precious to God — but are they to us?
Here’s a short excerpt:
God places motherhood far higher in esteem than the value of a two-income lifestyle. “An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels….Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her” (Proverbs 31:10,28). Few career women will find that their bosses, or co-workers, or market competitors will ‘rise up and call her blessed.’ And even if they do, those blessings will ring hollow, compared to the sounds of a husband and children who bless her having known her well.
Would that all wives were so prized like jewels at home, that they never let money pressures lure them into the workforce.
Having children then would hardly seem the burden that it appears to
be. God’s command to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it…” would be seen, not as a burden, but as the blessing He intended it to be. The joys of motherhood, the rich rewards of parenting and the pleasure of passing on our faith in Jesus Christ to the next generation all would take on the treasured status God intends for them to possess. Even in the midst of the daily difficulties of dishwashers and diapers.
(HT: CBMW)
Amen brother, amen.
‘BH
3 Comments
August 26, 2008 at 12:59 pm
You’ll notice that the world makes a weak attempt at “rising up” and “calling her blessed” in the obituaries. The women that are highlighted are always the career ones and/or ones that spent a lot of time outside the home volunteering for certain causes. You never read one about a woman who finished well as a helpmeet to her husband who trained her children in the fear and admonishon of the Lord.
The same can be said for awards given for ‘mother of the year’. What is emphasized is that even though the poor woman sold herself short by settling for homemaking, she eventually realized her need for higher education, and after her husband dumps her, she goes to work for pennies an hour to put her kids through college when finally, before her life is wasted away, she makes it to the hallowed gates of the local university to recieve long awaited fullfillment, by earning a degree, therefore acknowledging her true worth.
Inspiration at it’s best.
By the way, an interesting tidbit, the woman who is given credit for the invention of ‘Barbie’ was a career woman. Her daughter (whom Barbie was named for) greatly missed having her mother at home, and resented the # of hours she spent working. When the daugher grew up, all she wanted to be was a wife and mother, and that’s what she did. She never wanted to be associated with the doll, or the business, in any way, shape, or form (no pun intended).
August 27, 2008 at 7:20 pm
This would be a decent time to read Pope Paul VI’s landmark encyclical Humanæ Vitæ… It is the fortieth anniversary of the letter to Catholics that re-affirmed that the Catholic Church was going to stand by what had been – up until 1931 when the Anglicans changed course on the teaching by vote – the consensus throughout the Christian world.
For forty years we have been made fun of for this fidelity to the Biblical and Traditional Christian teachings. But I think vindication is at hand as we look at the Demographic Winter hitting Europe and the utter and irrevocable de-population that Russia is about to experience.
Keep writing about these matters! It is heartening to this Catholic to have other voices crying out in the wilderness on this pressing and underexamined evil.
January 20, 2009 at 9:55 pm
[...] is weeping over what happened in Washington D.C? Jump to Comments Brent Nelson, who I’ve mentioned before on this blog and works for the CMBW, published a poignant blog post today on the sound heard behind the hooplah [...]