Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
Through the weekly and daily devotionals you can be constantly encouraged in your great role of parenting, the highest career in the nation. You can also stay updated on what's happening with the Above Rubies ministry.
LIVING IN THE GLORY, Part 3
More about LIVING IN THE GLORY continuing.3. NURSING YOUR BABY IS GLORY
We read the beautiful allegory in Isaiah 66:10-13 which describes Jerusalem as a nursing mother. As we read this passage, we understand how God sees the glory of a nursing mother—the breasts bringing comfort, consolation, delight, peace, and glory. Verse 11 of the Berean Study Bible says: “So that you may nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you may drink deeply and delight yourselves in her glorious (kabod) abundance.”
Are you breastfeeding your baby, dear mother? You are doing a glorious work. Not only is your baby blessed but you are blessed with the wonderful anti-stress hormones of oxytocin and prolactin. God provides adequately for the nursing mother.
4. PREPARING YOUR CHILDREN FOR ETERNITY IS GLORY
Dear mother, you are not wasting your time as you nurture, teach, and train your precious children. Motherhood is not a fading career but lasts for eternity. All other careers will be left behind but pouring out your life to prepare your children for their destiny is an eternal career. You are pouring into eternal souls.
I think of the apostle Paul who poured out his soul for the new believers. When he wrote to the young Thessalonian Christians, he said: “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at this coming? For ye are our glory and joy” (1 Thessalonians 2:19, 20).
A career outside your home will not be your glory on the day you stand before the Lord. Your glory will be your children that you have faithfully raised for Him. As I raised our children, I constantly prayed the same prayer Paul prayed for these believers in 5:23: “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Motherhood is not only caring for the physical bodies of our children but their souls and their spirits. That takes full-time motherhood.
What a glorious career you have,
Nancy Campbell
Painting: A Woman Nursing a Child, c.1894 | Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
