and I must say that after watching 15+ video clips of women in Mongolia pushing out babies in the squatting position like it was all in a day's work...I feel oddly more prepared for this thing called labor...
if they can handle the pain like champs...how hard can it be...right?
...they say all third-trimester, first-time moms will experience some degree of anxiety...which I guess is true...
but I have to admit... I am not anxious about the pain of labor, or that my child will be born with a birth defect or imperfection, or that I won't know what to do with the colossal responsibility of caring for a newborn...
sure those things can be daunting...but for me...
its not a fear in bringing a child into the world...its a fear of bringing a child into this world...
You know the one I'm talking about...
this world where the 5'oclock news showcases 16-year-old drunk drivers getting killed in late-night wrecks
this world where 13-year-old girls dress like they're from the red-light district and then post their pictures on facebook for everyone to see...
this world where our local high schools have nicknames like "the pharmacy" because there are more students with drugs in their backpacks than there are stars in the sky...
this world where gluttony runs rampant, where we are taught from a young age to treat life like an all-you-can-eat buffet where our primary goal is to accumulate as much as possible before its over...
this world where the toys-r-us stores are two times the size of the local grocery stores, and are chocked full of brightly colored fisher-price plastic stuff, all of which will someday reach their final destination in landfills or storage facilities (which by the way is one of the fastest growing industries in our nation)...
I could go on and on, but you get the idea...this world is not a safe place for children...
so how do we raise them?
how do we teach them about all that is lovely, pure, holy and good in this world?
(phillipians 4:8)
how do we show them what it means to be in this world, but not of it?
(Romans 12:2)
how do we explain to our toddlers that the peas and carrots on their plate that they are refusing to eat contain nutrients that thousands of children around the world are dying from the lack of...
That is what keeps me up at night. now you know.
and yet I have very, very good news...
There is a God...
and He is personal, and He is present, and He is protective, and He is kind, and He LOVES us.
That is what allows me to sleep at night, and what allows me to smile at the thought of bringing a new life into this fallen world...
Because of Him, we have Hope.
Anyone else have thoughts like these from time to time?
I couldn't agree more. Thank you for your honest and serious encouragement! You said it so well.
ReplyDeleteI think about this kind of thing all the time. I have 2 boys, Gabriel 4 years, Michael 5 months, thinking about raising godly men in a world where women are sexual objects, to nurse a baby in public without a sheet or a tent (that is what some of those nursing covers feel like) is an offensive act bordering on public live pornography which is gonna cause every man within a 50 yard radius to lust after you (um yeah can you tell I live in the bible belt?). I want to raise men who love Jesus, respect and protect women, who see the body as beautiful, but also to not always associate nudity with sex, birth is beautiful but not sexual, nursing in beautiful but not sexual, this is why I will never cover up while nursing around my sons...yeah some fathers I know required this of their wives...for a while. I would prefer not to cover up at all, though I would still be discrete but my husband is very possesive of "his" breasts and doesn't want anyone else getting an eyeful lol! I could honestly care less.
ReplyDeleteI want to raise men who respect the elderly because they understand that the elderly have lived longer and have gone through the same things they have (though perhaps with a little less electricity and convenience). I want to raise my sons to love children, esp their own, to desire to be loving fathers who are involved and invested in their children's day to day lives like my darling husband has been.
I want to raise sons who are not afraid to proclaim the gospel no matter the cost, to declare Jesus come what may.
Jesus has called me to raise men, men of God, men God can use to forward his gospel. I don't care if they are preachers or missionaries, they can be teachers, computer techs, store managers, lawyers (the world is always in need of Godly lawyers), whatever, you don't have to be an official preacher or missionary to forward the gospel, just live Christ before those in your life and you have the job! This is what I'm trying to do and the world is working so hard to undermine my work 24 hours a day! Thank Jesus he is working harder then either the world or I on my sons hearts, I can trust the end results to him!