It feels like you’ve fulfilled that space in your heart. Years of yearning to be the bearer of good fruit. Motherhood feels like it is your purpose. The one thing you know you will get right. You’ve served others in a multitude of ways but this assignment feels like it's the ONE. I get it. Millions of women have this exact feeling. We are moms, the portal between the spiritual world and earth. Claiming motherhood as your purpose feels like the calling God put on your life. But that’s where it gets tricky.
Motherhood can be a wonderful and fulfilling experience, but it’s not the end-all-be-all for us. Our purpose is first and foremost to love God more. This means that motherhood can’t be our ultimate purpose. Godly motherhood is a product of fulfilling our purpose: loving God more by knowing him better. So we nurture children, our friends, ladies in our local church, neighbors, and whomever God leads us to serve. God’s purpose for every relationship we have and every circumstance of our lives, even one as world-shifting and challenging as motherhood, is to bring us further up and further to him. When we find our value, identity, and purpose in our relationship with Jesus, we are sanctified and godliness is the result.
The grand plan for motherhood is the same plan that God has for everything he has created. He created all things for his glory, so to put it bluntly, motherhood is about nurturing life. God has created and equipped women to nurture the life he creates—both biological and spiritual.
In the book of Timothy, Paul writes that Timothy's sincere faith was given to him by his grandmother Lois and mother Eunice—even though there weren't any godly men in his life at the time. It appears that these two women had a profound influence on shaping him into the pastor and leader he became for the benefit of the early church. That’s the same impact you will have on your children.
2 Timothy 1:5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. NLT
In the world of motherhood, we are all on a journey. We are all navigating the waters of motherhood in our own way and in our own time. But we must remember that as mothers, we are also disciples. Our motherhood that is done for Christ is part and parcel of the new creation, an invisible kingdom that is growing like a mustard seed in a garden, and spreading throughout dough like leaven. We go about the good work that God has prepared for us knowing that our salvation and the salvation of those for whom we care is a gift of God by grace through faith. So we make our boast in Jesus Christ and we point to him.
The joy of motherhood comes from seeing the seeds you planted for your family grow into a healthy life. But the assignment God gives you matters too – to find your value, identity, and purpose in your relationship with Jesus.
It can be hard to find purpose outside of motherhood when we're caught up in the energy it requires from us. But if we look hard enough, there's the only purpose in glorifying God. Accepting that your purpose in life is to glorify God in all things you do – inside and outside of motherhood.