Today we continue our book study on The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson with chapter 2: Beautiful by Design. This book has a wealth of encouragement to grant vision and purpose for your role as a mother! Please join us!
Chapter 2 reaffirms the beauty of God’s purpose and design for us as mothers and the home. In our day and age, there is mass confusion, frustration, conflict over the role of a mother. I personally long to have a Biblical understanding of God’s original design. Much of this conflict is a result of the falleness and depravity of the human race.
In Genesis 1:26-27, we read about the creation of man and woman. We see that both men and women were made in the image and likeness of God. We were made to display His attributes, to reflect His likeness in our work, our leisure, and the purpose of our lives. Sally shares: “Each of us, man and woman, was given the purpose of partnering with God to rule over the world and to make it productive…Each of us is created with a capacity and purpose to be productive and creative in life – according to our drives, gifts, and strengths – and to glorify God as we rule over the specific dominion he has entrusted to us.”
Part of our original greatest privileges in our creation was the important responsibility to bring other human beings into the world. “These offspring were also to know the design of God. In the context of family, they would learn what it meant to be made in the righteous image of their Creator, to subdue the earth for God’s glory, and to populate the earth with their own children, thus producing a godly heritage.”
While women and men were created equal, and they both were assigned the joint task of bearing children and subduing the earth, they were uniquely created different. Eve by the very meaning of her name is a “life-giver” – she was created to bring life into the world! Her unique physical body was particularly designed for such a purpose - “He gave her a womb to bear a child, breasts to feed it, a more padded physique suited for cardling babies, and the emotional makeup, with all the right hormones, to be able to nurture and care for her children…According to recent research, he even structured our brains to make it easier for us to handle several tasks at once - as the tasks of caring for a household and small children demand.”
Wow! That is amazing to me! We all, whether we bear children or not, we are created to be life-givers!
“Not every woman will marry. Not every woman will be able to bear children. And yet all women have the God-given capacity to live in ways that beautifully and purposefully express their life-giving feminine design -their helper or cooperative approach to tasks, their ability to multitask, their nesting instincts and creative spirit. A woman’s body was made, in part, to bring life into the world, and that’s a good thing from God’s point of view. However, the common purpose for all woman is to glorify God in whatever circumstances and boundaries of life we find ourselves, trusting him to show us how we can best use our gifts for him.”
Consider…are we being life-givers in our domain or life-takers? Are we sucking life out of our families and friends by our wrong attitudes, pride, bitterness or frustration at where God has placed us or called us to in this season.
With the fall of mankind, recording in Genesis 3:1-6, Sally points out: “humans no longer reasoned as God reasoned, and they began to make up their own theories about their purpose in life.” Satan sought to attach the foundation of the family, which was designed by God to be the stable foundation of life. Rather than considering how we are created to serve and love one another, a self-centered approach to life results from sin. Children tend to be seen as burdens rather than blessings (Ps. 127), a monetary expense rather than a gift to be cherished, parents tend to depend upon their children to fulfill their own emotional needs, and children become self-centered little people as a result. We can so easily loose sight of passing on a legacy of righteousness to the next generation as we get caught up in a culture of personal fulfillment.
What a glorious truth that God is not finished with us yet! Even though we may throw aside his original purpose and design, He is beautifully transforming us through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, that we might walk in newness of life, and take hold again that purpose of being life-givers in all that we do!
What stood out to you in this chapter? Please feel free to share a quote, a prayer, or anything that the Lord has been challenging you with thus far. How can we seek to fulfill God’s purpose of being life-givers rather than life-takers?
I am reading the book along with you. I just haven’t had time recently to write up a long summary. I am learing a lot! And gaining so much from this study! I hope to be able to share some of my comments future chapters.
Thank you for sharing your insight on what appears to be a wonderful book. I am currently in another bible study and don’t have the time for both. I’m going to put this book on my Christmas list. It just sounds so good. So, I appreciate learning through your comments. As much as I understand motherhood is a blessing and He has given me everything I need to tackle it, it still feels TOTALLY overwhelming to me. This is something I struggle with and am joyfully learning to fully rely on Him to get me through. That in itself is a blessing. So thanks again for all the little tidbits you share to help us struggling mammas get through!
Three areas really blessed me from this chapter:
1) This quote, “God’s Word, you see, gives us the map or plan for the family so that we might better understand what he had in mind for us.” In my opinion this might be the best kept secret in churches today – my experience is that so many Christian parents have no clue that the bible is so relevant for teaching and training our children…
2) From Psalm 127:3-5 – I am now trying to consciously call my children my “arrows” in an effort to remember the purpose God has placed upon me as their mother and what He intends for their precious lives….I’m not just raising them to give me grandbabies and provide me with a lovely Thanksgiving meal and Christmas-time, they are intended to further God’s Kingdom, however God calls them to do so.
3) At the end of the chapter Sally reflects on exactly what God will ask us when we stand before Him and the questions He will ask. “What do you do with those precious eternal beings I entrusted in your hands? I doubt He will say, “Did you get enough ‘mommy’ time or did you make sure that they were exposed to enough activities to make sure they were “well-rounded”?
Loved this chapter!
I again enjoyed this chapter, but I will have to say I had to read it a few times. Not because I didn’t get what she was saying, but because (I’ll be honest, ya’ll don’t know me.
) as a woman who has never been able to get pregnant, hearing about the purpose of women, the design of a woman, etc. can hurt. Not that the author was doing this and not that my feelings are right, its just one of those struggles I have sometimes. I wouldn’t ever trade my 2 precious girls for a house full of biological children, but sometimes I still feel like Hannah and that somehow I’ve missed out on something. Again, I have been blessed beyond belief, so I know this is just something that Satan tries to use and that I have to go to God in prayer, trust Him and again realize that His way is perfect. All that being said, God again opened my heart to show me what He wanted me to learn. I loved the paragraph that you mentioned and how I am still called to be a life giver, not literal life, but in using the gifts God has given me for Him, for my husband, and for my children. It is such a wonderful affirmation that motherhood is GOD’s design. I like how she mentioned that although the every day tasks of being a mother seem menial that this is the “stuff from which godliness is built.” Wow — not menial at all! This afternoon as we went to the grocery store and out of the blue my 4 year old starts telling someone that “Jesus died on the cross for us….” and I thought Thank you Lord for using me in this little life to teach her about you. What an amazing privilege. The last quote that really stood out to me, and it helped me through my struggles, was “For it is finding God and submitting to him that we will find the purpose and meaning that He has designed us to experience. As we learn to fulfill the design for which we were created, we will find love, peace, and freedom that we long for.” In my girls lives, I often quote the verse that God’s way is perfect, thinking that before I was even born, that God had planned these 2 precious girls to be my children. But somtimes I know that I overlook that He designed me exactly the way He wanted to as well. But when I trust Him and submit to Him I really do get His peace in my life as well!
Hi Lindsay,
I bought this book on your recommendation and have really enjoyed it. It arrived late AND I had some computer trouble so I have not had a chance to write about it yet. However, I am on schedule!
I love Sally’s encouragement. Her description of God’s design for families is so good. I honestly believe that many women do not realize the joy and satisfaction that comes with fulfilling the role of wife and mother.
One of my favorite parts of the book is the way the author describes her own mother here and there. She obviously loves her dearly and was greatly impacted by a woman who took her role seriously.
I’m looking forward to the rest of the book!
Stacy
Sorry I’m don’t have the book (and am living in Brazil) so I can’t read it, but I’m enjoying reading your overviews. Being a life-giver is so huge! We can bring life in all we do and say. It’s so much more then just bringing forth human life. In my home church I did the study 5 Aspects of Woman, by Barbara Mouser a couple of times. (It’s a wonderful study!!) One aspect is life-giver. This was a good reminder for me to really know what God says about bringing forth life and not death in all I do. P.S. I’ve been silently reading your blog for awhile now and really enjoy it. Thanks!