Motherhood, a beautiful partnership with God

Guess which of our four children I am holding in this photo with Nelson. Is it Karen, Debi, David (Brent) or Roger. This was our first home in Burnaby, B.C. at 3933 Francis Street.

   

     Mother’s Day — a day set apart to honour our mothers, or for many of us, their memory. 

   Considering that precious something called motherhood, I am always awed as I realize anew that beautiful partnership mothers have with God, in bringing a new life into the world. Though the various stages of parenting can bring joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness and pride, yet no other career in life is more fulfilling. 

   To have a major role in guiding a young life to become all that they were created to be, is an awesome, yet beautiful adventure. 

     Someone cried, “Where must this seed be sown to bring the most fruit when it is grown?” The Master heard as he said and smiled, “Go plant it for me in the heart of a child.” 

     God blessed Nels and I with two beautiful daughters and two handsome sons, giving us enabling grace to parent them to adulthood.

     Now, living to see their children’s children, (to-date only two great-grands, but patiently waiting), I feel truly blessed with love, care and attention.                           

     April was Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Almost daily, our news makes mention of another sexual assault or sexual misconduct, whether at a university campus, in the work place, in the military, on our streets or among elected government officials. 

     Recently, Senator Don Meredith chose to resign from his position in the Senate, before possibly being expelled for sexual exploitation of a minor. Can we no longer count on our leaders to give moral accountability? It seems our generation is obsessed with sex, as if it was something new. 

     Sex has been around since the beginning of time — a beautiful gift from God when He created us male and female. Unfortunately, it has become distorted, defamed and misused. Someone has said, we are experiencing the plague of immorality. 

     Having lived these many years, I often go back in memory to those earlier days, before the sexual revolution, five decades ago. Of course, life was not perfect then either, but somehow it seemed a bit safer in our homes and on our streets. 

     Casting off what was thought as puritanical restraints of past generations, the 60's and 70’s ushered in a new era of sexual experimentation. It could be called a coming-out-party, complete with sex, LSD and rock n’ roll, in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. Labelled, “Summer of Love,” an effort was begun to trade traditional morals for a new vision of freedom, love and enlightenment. “If it feels good, do it!” became the theme. Now, fifty years later, the grand visions of free love and fulfillment has instead, delivered suffering and social breakdown, with marriage being defaced and devalued. 

   With moral decline all around us, it seems the moral compass no longer has a true north. We are living in perilous and unpredictable times. 

     C.S. Lewis called our world “enemy occupied territory.” 

     As we feel surrounded by negative influences of a predominately secular world, we may at times, almost wish we could be a part of the early monastic movement, detached from the world as described in 1 John 2:16 — “the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life.” 

   Yet we know it is not our mission to escape the world, isolating ourselves from others. Instead, as Jesus said, we are to be the “salt of the earth” in whatever environment he has placed us. 

   Salt, we know, is a preservative that stops the process of decay. Just being there, has its effect. Likewise, our lives have influence, whether we are aware of it or not, in our work place, in society, or in our neighbourhood. 

   Christian author Phillip Keller wrote an article entitled, “Salt for Society,” in which he states, “Either our lives are counting for good and for God or they are making an impact for evil and the enemy. The way we live, the things we say, the attitudes we entertain, the lifestyle we adopt are continuously producing either positive or negative results in society. Our lives, whether we are aware of it or not, either count for God or against God. There simply is no middle ground.”  

   

     That is something we all should wisely consider. Kent Annan, says it right — “…weep at the world, then get up, wipe the tears from our eyes and see a little more clearly the vision for His Kingdom coming (on earth), and how we can help it to come.”   

   Hope is looking to the future in such a way that we have confidence in the present.

— beulah