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Years ago, weary from caring for my two littles, Clay encouraged me to meet with a friend for coffee. She had teenagers, was older than me, so I paid attention to what she said.
“Sally, you are so talented in ministry, such a great speaker. Don’t have any more children. You have a girl and a boy. You don’t need any more kids. It would be a waste of your ministry skills and training to further distract yourself with the burden of more children.”
Something about her unsolicited, unexpected counsel, bothered me. I searched scripture about motherhood and children. “God blessed them; God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth ...’” (Genesis 1:28).
Eve’s name was “the mother of all the living”. Motherhood was an important part of God’s design for man & woman at the beginning. I had discipled adults, now I realized God created me as a mother to disciple my children, the future adults in my own home. The more I studied this topic in thirty-seven years of motherhood, the more I am convinced of the importance of a mother as a disciple maker. This inspired me to write many books on motherhood.
My friend had good intentions in giving her advice, but I knew that childbearing was imbued with eternal significance for me—raising children, bringing life to my home, and passing on a legacy of faith was part of God’s eternal design for my family.
There are many ways to invest your life and we are quite free to figure out, by faith, Gods way for us. Yet, my investment in my children as a strategic ministry of faith was no less important than the ministry I had outside of my home. This encounter, paved the way for us to decide to have more children, and for me to put aside some of the demands of public ministry in order to focus on personal ministry in my home. Of course I am exceedingly grateful for my Nathan and my Joy.
As a mother who has raised four children from birth into adulthood, engaging my life and faith in the lives of my children has been my most fulfilling, fruitful work. We all have different stories to live, yet I have not regretted the decision to do less ministry, have more children, and give myself fully to the work of raising them. It was challenging most days, but giving up my life to serve them was worth the cost.
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