IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE
Part 2

“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it;
but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's,
the same shall save it”
(Mark 8:35).

We continue to talk about reasons why many mothers feel depressed after having a baby.

5. THEY ARE NOT PREPARED FOR RESPONSIBILITY

It is true that motherhood is not easy. It is not for wimps. It is a life of selflessness rather than selfishness. Most young people today grow up with an entitlement attitude. They think everything revolves around them and nothing should get in the way of their plans. A baby arrives. Suddenly, they can no longer live their own life. Or do what they want when they want to. They must sacrifice for another person. They can’t even have a full night’s sleep. Help! A little baby arrives to change their life forever.

But no matter what we do in life, nothing will always be perfect. Everyone who wants to do something great will face challenges, hardship, and sacrifice. A businessman has setbacks, trials, and disappointments. But he doesn’t give up and go into depression. He faces them head on, understanding they are part of life.

A missionary often faces hardship and persecution. Does he or she get into depression because life is not a bed of roses? No. They face the battles head on because they’re doing a great work.

It’s the same with motherhood. It is the most important career in the world. It is the highest career God gave to women. He equates it with joy. But every mother will face challenges. She will face laying down her own life for her baby. Sacrifice . . . yes. Selfless love . . . yes. But isn’t this what grows us into maturity? It takes us from the selfish and ugly to beauty and joy?

6.    THEY ARE NOT PREPARED BIBLICALLY

Most young women have no idea of God’s plan for them as a woman. They don’t know what God’s Word says. Even young mothers in the church are often as ignorant as those in the secular world. Where are the older women who teach the younger women about being a wife and mother (Titus 2:3-5)? They are often nonexistent in our churches today. Will they be responsible for a nation of mothers who have no idea of God’s plan for motherhood?

I am saddened when I hear older women saying, “I don’t need to hear about motherhood anymore. I’m well past that time of life.” I beg your pardon. We are never “past that time of life.” When the time comes that we can physically have no more children, we don’t abdicate motherhood. We were created to be mothers and nurturers until our life ends. We begin enjoying grandbabies. And then we move into the responsibility of teaching the young mothers of the next generation how God wants them to mother. How can we do that if we say that “we are past that kind of thing”? I think many older mothers desperately need to hear God’s truth for mothers so they can pass on the truth to the next generation, rather than leading them astray. 

Our humanistic society puts mothering at the bottom of the list. When God gives a description of the attributes of a godly woman in 1 Timothy 5:10 He puts mothering at the top of the list!

God did not create haphazardly. He created each female with a womb to conceive life and breasts to nurture life. He reminds us we will be preserved through embracing motherhood. Many scientific studies now reveal that the more children a mother has and the more babies she nurses at the breast the more protection she has against female cancers.

1 Timothy 2:15 (NASB) says: “But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.”

The Greek word for “saved” or “preserved” is sozo, pronounced sode’-zo. It is a powerful, multi-encompassing word meaning “to save, deliver, protect, heal, cure, preserve, keep safe, and make whole.” That means that through embracing motherhood a woman is saved, delivered, protected, preserved, healed, and made whole--physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. You can’t beat that!

The reason many young mothers (and older mothers) feel depressed and confused is because they have not embraced their role of motherhood. They love their baby. They love their children. But they don’t love the career of motherhood because they think it interferes with their life.

The true joy of motherhood comes when a mother not only loves her baby but loves and embraces her role of motherhood. A mother who embraces mothering WILL NOT BE DEPRESSED. She experiences the joy, delight, and glory of motherhood that God intends for her.

Nancy Campbell
www.aboverubies.org

PRAYER:

“Dear Father, please help me to understand that I save my life by losing my life. Help me to teach this biblical principle to my children as I prepare them for life. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

How can I be depressed when I am walking in the perfect will of God?