Did you know that motherhood is synonymous with feeding and nourishing? If you are a mother, you are a child cherisher and child nourisher.
1 Timothy 5:10 gives the description of God’s plan for women. The first description of her is that she has “brought up” children. The word is “teknotropheo.” The breakdown of the word is as follows:
teknon = child
trepho = to fatten, to cherish with food, to pamper, feed, nourish
Here’s the full understanding. A mother loves and cherishes her children. Therefore, because she cherishes them, she nourishes them. Nourishing is the result of cherishing.
The moment God gives a beautiful baby into the arms of another, she immediately puts the baby to her breast. She begins nourishing. I love to see my daughter, Serene mothering her new baby, Solace. When Colin and I walked into their home last night, little Solace was nestled in Serene’s arms, as usual. She said to me, “Mother, I am IN LOVE.” Because she is in love with this baby, she nourishes her baby. She wants to fatten her.
There is something in mothers that wants to fatten their babies. That’s part of nourishing. Isn’t ‘it funny? This is the only time we drool about rolls and fat! When Serene’s last baby, Remmy, was born, he didn’t thrive. She couldn’t understand why he wasn’t fattening up. She eventually discovered that he had a very high palate and couldn’t feed adequately. Immediately she ordered a hospital pump and began pumping night and day, for a whole year, giving her milk from a Lact-aid as Remmy continued nursing from her breast. We called her Mrs. Pump! Serene was determined to fatten up her baby!
But we don’t stop nourishing when our babies wean. We continue nourishing. As our children grow, we continue to feed them nourishing foods. We do not cherish our children if we allow them to drink pop and serve them foods filled with sugar and devitalized foods such as white flour, white sugar, white pasta, and white rice, etc. It’s not enough to pacify the hunger in our children with packaged and conventional foods. We are nourishers! What only give them that which nourishes their bodies.
One of the words for food in the Bible is “trophe” and simply means, nourishment. If it doesn’t nourish, it can’t truly be called food. Food should strengthen the body (Acts 9:19).
And our nourishing goes beyond their bodies. We are nourishers of their souls and spirits too. The whole passion of cherishing our children is to nourish them in every part of their lives. This takes mothering to another dimension. We don’t have time to vacate the home for our own interests. We have such a huge and heavenly assignment.
Embrace your heavenly duty today.
Love from Nancy Campbell
Painting by Polina Luchanova, Russia.