In a world that often measures blessing by success, comfort and ease, it can be easy to forget that some of God’s greatest gifts come wrapped up in noise, little messes and sticky fingerprints on–everything! But the Bible is clear, children are a blessing from the Lord, not a burden.

💛Psalm 127:3 Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from Him.

💛Psalm 127:5 Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.

God doesn’t call children an inconvenience, an interruption or an unaffordable expense. They are not accidents to be avoided. Actually quite the opposite! He calls them a reward. They are intentional gifts from God bringing joy, growth and purpose to our lives. When we view our children through His perspective, it really does transform how we see our children even on the hard days.

Reasons Why Children are a Blessing:

1. Children Reflect God’s Love For Us

Each child displays God’s creativity, joy and compassion. No two people on this earth are exactly alike (even identical twins have differences in personality). Every life is a living testimony of God intentional design and His love. God designed the family from the very beginning as a reflection of His love. Looking into a child’s face reminds us of God’s creation and His love for us.

Our relationship with our children reflects the heart of God to us. Babies are born completely helpless and dependent on another to care for them. Their simplicity and neediness remind us of our own neediness for God. The way that we love our children with all our hearts, sacrificially and unconditionally, reflect the way that God loves us all the time. Children truly teach us about the Father’s love for us in a very unique way.

💛See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. -1 John 3:1

💛For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. -Psalm 139:13

2. Children Teach Us Dependence on God

Being a mom can be absolutely exhausting at times and certainly quite humbling. The more children I have had the more humbled I have become 🙂 These moments of exhaustion and being brought to the absolute end of our ropes show us we do not have the strength it takes to be good moms. We can’t draw from our broken states of humanness to give our children what they need. We must go to the Lord for His wisdom and strength. Raising children teaches us day by day, moment by moment, to rely on His grace.

Before motherhood, most of us feel like we are reasonably capable human beings. But the unpredictable moments of raising children quickly shake our confidence and show us that we are in fact not in control, of anything really. Each day brings new challenges that show us that we are not the ones that hold things together, but God does. Children are a blessing because they teach us to depend fully on God.

💛My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. -2 Corinthians 12:9

💛Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. -Proverbs 3:5

3. Children Bring Joy to Our Lives

Children bring such simple pure joy to our lives. Such sweet laughter, wonder and curiosity that brings smiles to our faces daily. Even on the hardest days with our children, they will make us smile and laugh. Children bring us a kind of joy that we can not know otherwise. They remind us that happiness come from the smallest simplest moments of life.

Daily life and routine can often feel mundane, but when we slow down and really enjoy how children view the world it brings us fresh perspective. Nothing makes us smile like the first giggles of an infant and the sweet little mispronunciations or word mix-ups of toddlers. Seeing our children accomplish things like their first steps, first words read and first real life challenges really brings so much joy to our hearts as parents.

💛Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. -Matthew 19:14

💛A cheerful heart is good medicine. -Proverbs 17:22

4. Children Carry a Legacy of Faith

God calls parents to pass on faith and truth from one generation to the next. Our children are a living legacy. Our children will go forth and accomplish much more than we will in our own individual lifetimes. I am encouraged when I visualize our family tree and how it will spread forth over the years, continuing the legacy of a godly family, but also what work might be done for the kingdom. God has called us to disciple the next generation and they will in turn influence the following generation afterward.

These seeds that we are planting by pouring time, attention and care into our children, teaching them God’s truths and character will grow into beautiful fruit. This process takes years, not days, to grow and mature. The work that we do does not need to look perfect every day, but with patience and some consistency over the long haul, we will reap what we have sown. God uses our children to continue His work into future generations.

💛We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord. -Psalm 78:4

💛Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. -Proverbs 22:6

💛And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. -Deuteronomy 6:6-7

5. Children Draw Us Closer to Christ

Jesus used children often as examples of the faith and humility we are called to live by. Their innocence and trust teach us what it means to depend on God wholeheartedly. Jesus loved children and He pointed to them as an example for spiritual maturity! Children bless us by reminding us what it means to come before God with a pure and trusting heart.

Children don’t simply inspire growth in us, making us want to be better people for their sake; they require it. We have to grow more like Christ when we lay our lives down for our children’s. Motherhood reveals to us areas that we need to grow. Seeing our need for the Lord when we don’t have all the skills or answers draws us closer to him.

💛Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. -Matthew 18:4

💛Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. -Matthew 18:3

6. Children Teach Us Patience

Raising children stretches us way beyond our limits and makes us into more patient, compassionate people. God shows us through our love for our children and their mistakes how much patience, love and mercy He has for us.

Children require a lot of patience! Every mom knows this 🙂 They move slower, they make lots of messes with their creativity and curiosity. Toddlers want things their way and don’t listen to any kind of reason. Children are growing and learning and make simple, honest mistakes. Children help remind us that hearts matter more than schedules, tasks, productivity and to-do lists.

💛Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. -Ephesians 4:2

💛As a father shows compassion to His children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are but dust. -Psalm 103: 13-14

7. Children Are a Blessing Because They Drive Us to Prayer

Nothing has prompted me to pray more earnestly than when it has come to motherhood. Children show us how much we depend on the Lord and how keenly we are not in control of anything. We love our children more than ourselves and when their safety and health are concerned, nothing drives us to our knees quicker as moms.

Children make life better, but they do not necessarily make life easier! Children are a blessing because they drive us straight to the feet of Jesus. As we reach the end of ourselves, it’s often where we are quickest to go to the Lord for His help in prayer. Blessing isn’t always about ease, but about the closeness that comes from drawing near to the Lord.

💛Pray without ceasing. -1 Thessalonians 5:17

💛The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. -James 5:16

8. Children Reveal Our Own Growth

As our children grow, we grow too. Motherhood has a way of holding up a mirror reflecting what is inside our own hearts. Sometimes we see strengths and victories reflected, other times we see our tendencies to sin very clearly. This is good because it refines us and shows us where we need to grow and be transformed by grace.

God uses children and their various stages as they grow to gently change, prune and strengthen our hearts to sanctify us and make us more like Jesus. Motherhood becomes a training ground. Over time though we are encouraged as the Lord matures us, seeing the evidence of God’s work in us. We become shaped into someone steadier, stronger and more like Christ, and that is beautiful!

💛Let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. -James 1:4

💛But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things there is no law. -Galatians 5:22-23

9. Children Connect Us With Others

There seems to be a common bond between parents. Children have a way of instantly connecting us to others. Smiling at a sweet baby in the checkout line, chatting with another mom at the playground or meeting new moms in the nursing room at church–it’s easy to have something to talk about when we share our children’s age stages and challenges. Children are a blessing because they help us to build community.

Children remind us that life is meant to be shared. Our family connections grow and change as we become parents and our parents become grandparents. We develop deep friendships with other moms as it becomes necessary to ask for help when we don’t know what to do. We grow together as friends and sisters in Christ by encouraging and praying for one another. Parenting is a shared bond that brings a married couple together through good times and hard ones too that we overcome by God’s good grace.

💛Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. -1 Thessalonians 5:11

💛Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. -Galatians 6:2

10. Children Bring Eternal Significance

Every new life is a miracle, specially thought of and made by God, with every little detail preordained. It may take some time, but God uses our children to help us see past the world we are living in, and help us to set our eyes on something bigger than the here and now, something eternal. Each child is an eternal soul, a being that will one day leave this earth and will live on forever. It helps to remember that each teaching moment, and every part of our day that pours into loving and shaping our child’s character produces fruit that lasts longer than the things of this world.

The time and effort that we spend pouring into our children is time and effort poured into the kingdom of God. We are doing so much more than laundry, dishes, cooking, and cleaning–we are shaping the future generation. We pass on our faith and God’s truths and this ripple effect moves from our children to our grandchildren to our great-grandchildren and beyond.

💛One generation commends your words to another; they tell of your mighty acts. -Psalm 145:4

💛So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. -2 Corinthians 4:18

💛Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…For where your treasure is, there your heart also will be. -Matthew 6:19-21

What you and I do today and tomorrow and next week, right here in our homes, will live on for eternity through the soul’s we are influencing as mothers. I get so excited and feel spiritually refreshed as a mom every time I remind myself of this truth. These truths give us courage to continue doing the good work and relieve some of the weariness. Perhaps it even gives some of us the courage to be open to another child, or have more than is socially acceptable. It is a long process bringing up children, but it really does bless us and is worth every single hard moment in the end. Children truly are a blessing in every sense of the word.

I hope that you were blessed and encouraged today.

💛Mandy