Teaching Younger Women to Love Their Children

“The aged women likewise…
That they may teach the young women
to be sober, to love their husbands,
to love their children,”
Titus 2:3a-4

“How can a mother not love her babies?” I’ve asked myself that question hundreds of times and have struggled to find the answer. I don’t have children, but motherly love has always seemed like a beautiful, God-given response to the miracle of childbirth. That’s why it pains me deeply to hear news reports of hateful behaviors displaying the opposite. It’s disheartening. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that hate, in any form, could permeate a heart so deeply that someone would want to bring harm to a child, especially their own. However, as I continued studying the next instruction given to aged women in Titus 2, God clearly showed me the answer. Older women are to teach younger women to love their children, which made me think, “If we’re not teaching the next generation how to love, are we teaching them to hate?”

Most women of a certain age, without health problems, can birth children. But, that doesn’t guarantee they’ll want them, care for them, or know how to love them. It’s the responsibility of parents, Christians, churches and communities to teach them. Could the hate we see today be the result of love not shared and shown?

We’re all capable of loving because God made us in his image. (Genesis 1:26-27) Unfortunately, we’re born sinners and our sin natures make us naturally self-serving. Thankfully, when we accept Jesus by faith, (Romans 10:9-10) God’s Spirit comes to dwell in us. (1 Corinthians 3:16) His Spirit produces love in us. (Galatians 5:22)

Motherly love is often exhibited the minute a precious life is conceived in the womb. At other times, that love is hindered by personal tragedies that debilitate, devastate and discourage. When dire circumstances, like neglect, addictions, abuse, etc. leave tragic scars on a woman’s heart, fulfilling the motherly role becomes more difficult.

Passing Love on with Purpose

Bird’s tender care for their young ones is a beautiful, parental, display of the Creator’s love. God also gives us specific ways to pass His love on with purpose:

• Talk to children about God’s Son (Matthew 19:14)
• Teach children God’s Words (Deuteronomy 6:4-7)
• Train children in God’s Ways (Proverbs 22:6)

Placing Love in Perspective

Unfortunately, women aren’t always given the right perspective of a mother’s love and it’s hard to reciprocate a love you’ve never received. Sadly, hateful experiences overshadow love in three ways:

• Absence
• Attitudes
• Actions

That’s why it’s so important to learn and teach a Godly view of love.

I’m grateful for the gracious ambassadors of motherly love—my own mother, as well as others—mothers who cherish their living or lost children, barren women who care for others’ children, grandmothers who sacrifice to raise grandchildren, and mothers who take in strangers’ children as their own. These sweet, loving examples deserve the spotlight and put love in perspective.

I’d like to give a shout out to my nieces, friend’s daughters and acquaintances. They are loving mothers, who are doing superb jobs, raising their children in difficult times with joy, hope, creativity and resourcefulness. Many are currently breastfeeding, or bottle-feeding, while homemaking, holding jobs, homeschooling and serving in their churches and communities. Thanks for loving your children on purpose every day. It gives me hope for the future. (Luv you Gurls!)

Bring It Home

Is our love for children teaching younger women to love their own?
Praying for you as we grow together,

Smiles, BRC