Celebrating Children on Mother’s Day?

False Dichotomy

Much of the secular world and the Bible have two very different ways to view children.

On the one hand, there’s the secular world. Most of us have seen billboards for abortion service providers that present the idea that being pregnant is a disastrous circumstance or conversely that not being pregnant is the way to be successful. While having a baby, especially if you’re unmarried, is indeed a big responsibility, considering a child to be merely an encumbrance is dehumanizing to both the mother and the child and is really viewing things the wrong way.

There are many Scriptures that point to the value of children.

On the other hand, there are many Scriptures that point to the value of children by showing how we should take care of them (1 Thessalonians 2:7), train them (Ephesians 6:4), be compassionate (Psalm 103:14), accommodate (Matthew 19:13), and not frustrate them (Colossians 3:21). Clearly, the Bible has a lot to say about caring for children! It also says a lot about how God views them (even unborn) in a favorable light:

Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you. (Psalm 147:12-13)

Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children. (Proverbs 17:6 NIV)

Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)

Children are precious, and there is a war waging against them right now.1 At Answers in Genesis, we’ve often called abortion a child-sacrifice to the god of self. A jarring phrase, to be sure, but it is referring to the biblical concept of how heinous the act of willful termination of a child’s life for the alleged benefit of the parent is in God’s eyes:

You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 18:21)

It is true that some circumstances may not be the best to bring a child into; however, termination of that life is not a valid alternative.

It is true that some circumstances may not be the best to bring a child into; however, termination of that life is not a valid alternative. Think about it: the implication is that a child is better off dead when there are ways to give every child a good life if the parents value the child as an image-bearer of God (Genesis 1:26–27). That can include asking for help from a pro-life pregnancy care center or allowing another family to adopt your child.

Children Are an Example

Being in the family of God gives us wonderful benefits, many of which are beyond our imagining. God uses earthly relationships to help us understand things “too wonderful” (Psalm 139:6) for us to otherwise. Marriage, for example, is called a mystery, and is a symbol of Christ’s love for the church (Ephesians 5:32). In a similar way, we are called children of God (1 John 3:1), adopted into his family {Ephesians 1:5), fellow heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).

The book of 1 John, in particular, is rife with references to believers as children and little children. As you read it, remember that it is the Word of God speaking to believers through a human author. You can sense the fatherly affection of both the inspired human writer and God himself toward his children. Paul also often spoke of other believers whom he “births” into God’s family as his children, laboring over them (Galatians 4:19) and being concerned for them constantly (1 Thessalonians 3:10).

The Making of a Mother

I have beautiful stories of how each child of mine was clearly an orchestration of God’s providence.

Every child is special. I have beautiful stories of how each child of mine was clearly an orchestration of God’s providence. But, really, everyone does. Maybe your children were unplanned by you (or even you were unplanned by your parents), or you think your pregnancy was nothing extraordinary, but every baby that enters a family by birth or adoption was planned and orchestrated by God.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. (Jeremiah 1:5)

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. (Psalm 139:13)

And it is even God who gives (or withholds) the “fruit of the womb.” God also, thus, makes parents and families. There is really no unplanned parenthood.

Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” . . . Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. (Genesis 30:2–22)

On Mother’s Day, I’m blessed to be a mother, blessed to have had a godly mother and still have my mother-in-law. I will probably have some sweet little surprises from my children, but the children themselves that my heavenly Father has given me and the blessing that they are as fellow image bearers of God and, thankfully, fellow heirs with Christ in his family, are the gifts that will bring me great joy today. Their praise is just the cherry on top.

Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her. (Proverbs 31:28)