“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you…”
— Galatians 4:19
Dearest Daughters,
As Mother’s Day approached, I could not help but think of all the blessings of being a mother.
Being a mother expanded my heart. The moment I laid eyes on you, Helen, for the first time, I understood a dimension of love I had not even known I needed to understand. It was like discovering clouds existed after having seen nothing but blue sky.
Motherhood taught me how to sacrifice—not only to sacrifice, but how to sacrifice with love and even joy. Getting up at night was never a drudgery to me. I loved looking at your little faces. As I fed you in the quiet darkness, I didn’t want to cut it short. I cherished every moment.
Then, as you became toddlers and grew from there, motherhood taught me patience. I didn’t know I was impatient until I had children. And when I became frustrated, it was not truly with you, but with myself—because I wanted so deeply to impart to you the things that would make you happy, whole, obedient, and free.
Motherhood taught me to be a teacher. I had always thought of myself as a student, but I came to realize that learning and teaching walk hand in hand. As I longed to reveal to you all the beautiful things I was discovering about life, I became a teacher.
It taught me to be a nurturer. As I made your favorite foods, puzzled over health problems, worried over infant weight gain, and learned what strengthened and nourished you, I became invested in good food, good habits, and healing.
It taught me to be a healthcare provider as I faced each sickness and injury, as I sought to understand and get to the bottom of them.
It taught me how to hear from God, because I so desperately needed wisdom and words to help you overcome. It gave me spiritual gifts—words of knowledge when I needed to know truth from a lie. It even made me a kind of prophetess in my own home when I needed to proclaim the word of God and the word of faith to you.
But most of all, motherhood humbled me. It made me more dependent on God, because I discovered I couldn’t do it without Him. Ultimately, only He could bring you to Himself. I could only point the way, and hope to live a life that inspired you to want to do so also.
Nothing has given me more joy than seeing you, my daughters, become mothers yourselves—watching you enter that holy process of surrender, transformation, and love.
The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy that a woman will be saved through childbirth (1 Tim. 2:15). We often understand this to mean that she will not die due to childbirth, and perhaps it does mean that. But the words that follow, continuing in faith, love, and holiness, suggest something even more ongoing: that we ourselves are saved, shaped, and sanctified as we surrender ourselves to bringing children into the world, and then labor again to birth them into the kingdom of God.
No work has worked a deeper work in my heart than motherhood.
May God bless you as mothers. May you surrender yourselves to receive all the gifts that come through motherhood. May you be transformed into the image of our Lord, and may this calling fill every dream in your heart.
All my dreams, and I believe yours can be can be encompassed in the word:
Mother.
I love you.
Love,
Mom