by Norman Bales

A glance at a few quotations from the past indicates how much our
perception of motherhood has changed. Samuel Taylor Coleridge said
that a mother is “the holiest thing alive.” James Russell Lowell
commended “That best academy, a mother’s knee.” Back in 1911,
William Dillon composed the ultimate song lyric in tribute to
motherhood – “I want a girl, just like the girl that married dear
old Dad.”

There was a time when a woman felt that she rose to her highest level
of achievement when she nurtured her children and even felt cheated
if she were denied that opportunity. Jacob’s wife, Rachel,
protested her infertility. She pleaded with Jacob, “Give me
children, or I’ll die” (Genesis 30:1). Proverbs 31:28 proclaims the
worth of mothers, “Her children arise and call her blessed; her
husband also, and he praises her.” Over the space of thousands of
years, mothers who stayed at home and raised children were considered
indispensable.

It was left to the arrogance of our generation to reverse public
opinion concerning the worth and value of motherhood. Today, we
admire the woman who runs a business, serves in a political office or
anchors the nightly news on television. I’m not going to be the one
who says that women shouldn’t do these things. On the other hand,
we need to do something to let the Moms of the world know that
preparing meals, running kids to dental appointments and Little
League games, and putting band aids on children’s “owies” are tasks
that have great worth and value.

Unfortunately, if a stay-at-home Mom goes to a party, she dreads
being asked, “What do you do, my dear?” Somehow, she’s made to feel
inferior because she’s a full time . On top of that, motherhood
takes a physical toll on a woman’s body. According to Gladys Hunt,
many of today’s women don’t want to become mothers because they have
seen other women lose the good looks of their youth and their
husbands turn to younger women who don’t have varicose veins from
giving birth to babies.

One well-educated, full-time mother developed the perfect answer to
arrogant snobs who try to make her feel like she’s a second rate
woman. She turns the “what-do-you-do-my-dear” question to her
advantage. She responds, “I am socializing two homo- sapiens in the
dominant values of the Judeo-Christian tradition in order that they
might be instruments for the transformation of the social order in
the teleologically prescribed utopia, inherent in the eschaton.”
(Anthony Campolo. The Power Delusion. p. 31). Any woman who can do
all that doesn’t need to apologize for her role.

If you have questions about marriage and family relationships, you can
“ASK THE COUNSELOR.” Address your questions to Mikal Frazier. Her
address is <>

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Southern Hills Church of Christ
Shreveport, Louisiana
E-mail:
Mikal Frazier:
Web: http://www.allaboutfamilies.org