By Diane L. Vaughan
    "When I learned I was going to have another baby, I rebelled against God my health was not good and I looked upon having another child with great sorrow and unhappiness."
    A missionary mom living in Africa spoke these troubling words. Her story poignantly demonstrates God's hand of providence in the life of one woman's struggle to understand her calling as a mother.
    But before I tell you her story, I would like to ask a question. How many of today's mothers have similar thoughts and feelings about their own motherhood? How many mothers-even Christian mothers-identify with this missionary mom, and at times look upon motherhood with great sorrow and unhappiness? I know that at one time I did. As I reflect on my own past struggles with motherhood, I can't help but believe these unpleasant emotions are probably more common than we mothers care to, or even dare to, admit.
    So how do we overcome them? We must remember that contrary to how we may feel at times, motherhood was, and still is, God's idea. According to His Word, it is a calling that is priceless in value, privileged in service, and promised with a blessing.

Priceless
    First of all, God wants us to understand the value of our calling. Contrary to the clamor of our present culture, God deems the worth of a mother priceless. How do I know? Because in Genesis chapter 3, God tells the very first mother, Eve, that through her seed a Savior would come. God Incarnate came to this earth through the womb of a woman, and that gave motherhood a price too high to be counted. It was God's stamp of approval that motherhood is very significant.
    Think about it for a moment. Eve, deceived into a sinful act that brought God's judgement into the world, now had a part--a unique part--in bringing grace and mercy to that same world through childbearing. Through her seed, the lost ground would be recovered and the doom of evil would be reversed. For Eve, childbearing wasn't an option. It was a chance to be a vessel of value, a chance to be the mother of a godly and priceless seed. That seed, sent from above, would save the world. And so Eve became, as her name means, the mother of all living.
  You and I, mothers of the 21st century, are equally priceless because of God's call to bear godly offspring. Though our blessed Savior has come through Mary, our mothering remains more precious than gold. For you see, motherhood is a threat to the forces of darkness. A mother, (of course with a little help from the father) brings offspring into the world. And a Christian mother has an opportunity to raise her offspring in the knowledge of Christ. Herein lies the threat to the domain of Satan - Christian offspring! Is it any wonder then that motherhood is under assault through the propagation of abortion on demand? To be a mother is indeed, a priceless calling.

Privilege
    Secondly, God would have us understand that raising godly children is a sacred privilege of motherhood. "Children are not to be viewed as a hindrance, an intrusion, an interruption or a burden," writes Nancy Wilson in her newest book, Praise Her In The Gates. When children are thus viewed, the amount of time a mother spends with her children begins to diminish. Subtly, a mother loses sight of her God-given privilege to raise her own children. Other things creep in and become more important. What is really happening is that she is giving away her privilege to raise her own children. In her absence, she is allowing others the prerogative to influence them. We must take care then that our hearts embrace the privilege of child rearing. We must not despise its weighty demands. We must embrace both our ministry and our children.
    Though I am still a young mother, years ago the Lord spoke to me about the privilege of raising my own children. I then had two children and was struggling in my calling as a mother. Many things competed for my time and attention-my role as a pastor's wife, my career as a RN, my household duties, and my own hobbies and aspirations to name a few. During those days, I looked upon motherhood (as did that missionary mom) with much sorrow and unhappiness. Having grown up without a mother, I did not really understand motherhood. I wanted to flee the nest!
    Then one day God opened my eyes to the blessed privilege of raising my own children. Exhausted from my two-year-olds persistence to read her a book, I sat down and hurried begrudgingly through the book (there were so many more important things to do!). It was a pop-out book about ants. As I sat reading about the ants to my daughter, all of the sudden the Lord got my attention. To my amazement, I discovered something the queen ant did before she laid her eggs. What did she do? She bit off her wings! Yes, the queen ant bites off her wings so that she can tend to her new children and not fly away from the nest. And it was there, as a huge pop-out ant stared me in the face, that the Lord told me He needed to clip off my wings. "How can you raise godly children," He said, "without giving them your time and attention?"
As I yielded to the Holy Spirit's conviction, I could not hold back the tears. My little girl then asked me, "Are you afraid of the big pop-out ant, Mommy?" "I'm okay," I reassured her. But I was better than okay, for all the while God was doing a work of grace in my soul. He clipped my wings so I would not fly away from my nest.
    I now have four children, and as the years go by, I continue to be a mother under construction. Yet, by the grace of God, it has now become my privilege to be with my children. As the old adage goes, there really is "no place like home" for me anymore. It is a privilege to shape little souls for Jesus, and a mother will know no greater satisfaction until she is wingless.

Promise
    Lastly, the Lord wants women to understand that the faithful mother can expect the promise of blessing to come, not only to them, but to their entire family as well.
    One blessing a mother can experience is a deeper work of change in her life-a change that makes her more Christ-like. Angela Guffey, in her book Tender Mercy for a Mother's Soul, writes that "motherhood is an ongoing, penetrating lesson in grace." She says that mothers begin with just a measure of grace but are soon led to abundant blessings. "God comes into our lives through our babies and begins the powerful work of change. Through my children, He has taken me by the hand and led me to a selfless place where I could have never gone by myself." Is this not a blessing? What godly changes has God wrought in your life through the lives of your children?

Back to Africa
    Remember our missionary mom? Well, she was pregnant with her seventh child, and living conditions were difficult in Africa. Understandably, the last thing she wanted was to be pregnant. But the Lord was going to use their new baby to bless her and her family in a way she could have never imagined.
    When "it was time," the family had to leave their African home and travel quite a distance to get to the nearest hospital. While there, bringing life into the world, death came to the small African village they left behind. A dangerous tribe attacked it, and every man, woman, and child was killed. Was there not a reason God blessed her womb a seventh time? Indeed there was. For the baby she did not want became her salvation.

Diane L. Vaughan is a wingless mother of two precious daughters and two priceless sons.