There was recently a YouTube video going around Facebook that had a bunch of mothers holding up messages on cardboard signs. One mother came out and it said, "I nurse my babies." The next one said, "I gave my babies formula." Another one, "I homeschool my children." Then, "My children go to public school." "I work full-time." "I am a stay at home mom." The list went on and on. The message was that we all need to accept each other with their decisions and not judge.
This is true. We are not to judge choices that are not sin issues, which some may or may not be. This is a free country and we are all allowed to raise our children the way that we want. However, it doesn't mean that women like me, who teach other women, shouldn't express our opinions and teach what we believe is best for women and their children. God's Word even has some things to say about some of these choices. This has nothing to do with judging others, but everything to do with teaching others what I believe to be the best for children. Older women are commanded to teach young women to love their children and loving them is doing what is best for them, not what is convenient nor what everyone else seems to be doing. I try very hard to base the majority of my teachings on God's Word, wisdom and what has worked for me.
Breast milk is FAR superior for babies than formula and everyone knows this to be true. Some women literally cannot nurse, so thankfully, we have formula. However, in the olden days, there were wet nurses to nurse those babies whose mothers couldn't produce milk. Today, some women who can't nurse their babies are even buying other women's breast milk since it is so much healthier. I think there are way too many women not nursing their babies because of selfish reasons; they want to sleep and have dad give the baby a bottle, it ties mothers down to their babies, it is painful for most at first, etc. I encourage you mothers, if at all possible, nurse your babies for at least a year!
You all know how I feel about public schooling. You would have to be blind to see how much it has deteriorated in the past 30 years and how many children raised in Christian homes are walking away from the Lord. We are called to raise our children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, not in some institution that is completely anti-God, filled with false teaching, and evil influences.
You also know how I feel about mothers working outside of the home. Everyone should understand the value of mothers raising their children and that no one can take their place. God calls mothers to be keepers at home.
How about the food we feed our children? Ask yourself ~ What food was created by God to feed our children? Aren't we temples of the living God and shouldn't we treat our bodies as such in everything? I read all the ingredients of everything I eat {which is why I eat very few things in a can or box}. I also read the movie reviews of any movie I am thinking about seeing. I choose not to put junk in my mind or body. You should think about this also. God gave us a brain and intelligence for a reason.
Yes, if you don't nurse your baby, send your children to public school, work full-time, and feed them a lot of junk, I will still love you and assure you that these choices have NOTHING whatsoever to do with your eternal salvation! But it may have to do with your eternal rewards as God has entrusted to you His precious children to raise them well and give the right foundation for life and godliness at an early age. Jesus will ask us what we did with the talents he entrusted to us, and will probably name them by name: Alyssa, Ryan, Steven, and what about Cassi? Did we bury or ignore our precious gifts of wealth from God? Or did we give them EVERY chance of becoming healthy and wise children of God who are growing up into Christ Jesus, and in turn raising the next generation of godly offspring?
However, I just want to encourage all of you to seek the Word of God and wisdom for your answers. If clear answers are not found in His Word, pray about it, seek wise counsel, and try to do things that are in the best interest of your children and their long term physical, mental, and emotional health even if it is the more difficult path. It is a sacrifice that is well worth making!
Can a woman forget her nursing child
Yes, if you don't nurse your baby, send your children to public school, work full-time, and feed them a lot of junk, I will still love you and assure you that these choices have NOTHING whatsoever to do with your eternal salvation! But it may have to do with your eternal rewards as God has entrusted to you His precious children to raise them well and give the right foundation for life and godliness at an early age. Jesus will ask us what we did with the talents he entrusted to us, and will probably name them by name: Alyssa, Ryan, Steven, and what about Cassi? Did we bury or ignore our precious gifts of wealth from God? Or did we give them EVERY chance of becoming healthy and wise children of God who are growing up into Christ Jesus, and in turn raising the next generation of godly offspring?
However, I just want to encourage all of you to seek the Word of God and wisdom for your answers. If clear answers are not found in His Word, pray about it, seek wise counsel, and try to do things that are in the best interest of your children and their long term physical, mental, and emotional health even if it is the more difficult path. It is a sacrifice that is well worth making!
Can a woman forget her nursing child
And have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.
Isaiah 49:15
Logging you in...
Sam · 542 weeks ago
Cynthia · 542 weeks ago
New moms need support, period. I know that I was begging for formula when my oldest was just a day old, because the pain from cracked and bleeding nipples was the most intense that I had ever experienced. My c-section and recovery were a breeze in comparison. At that moment, I didn't need to hear that breast was best. I knew it. I just didn't know how to deal with intense pain and a hungry crying baby. The only reason that I was able to continue nursing was that I was given some non-judgmental help at that point of crisis (cup feeding a bit of formula) and had a public health nurse who came to my home and spent almost an hour teaching me about proper positioning and latch. I was also in a community that provided lots of support to nursing moms. While a friend of mine weaned earlier because it was hard to avoid nursing in public, most of the people around me were very encouraging and had no issues with it.
Being judgmental is sometimes a way to blame mothers instead of helping them.
Beth A. · 542 weeks ago
However, for some reason that I cannot understand, so many wives and mothers outright refuse to feed their families healthy foods. They are still choosing processed, artificial, canned, boxed, hormone-filled and chemical-laced foods. I know numerous women who breast feed their babies, homeschool their children, and stay at home to raise their families, but yet they still feed them POISON. They are choosing to feed their precious children and husbands boxed dinners, mac n cheese, cereals, frozen meat by-products like chicken nuggets and fish sticks, and all kinds of packaged junk like oreos, snack cakes, hamburger helper, McDonalds, Burger King, and the list goes on.
Using price as an excuse is just that, an excuse. I know. I was one of these people. A few years ago, my husband and I threw away and gave away 14 bags of "food" that was in our fridge and cabinets. We gradually restocked with only fresh and healthy real foods. My grocery budget has gone up by about 10 or 15%, BUT, our "out to eat" budget has dropped by 90%. The benefits of eating healthy are far reaching. And our prescription budget - gone! My husband was on high blood pressure and high cholesterol meds for 17 years. In SIX months of eating only real food, his levels all returned to normal and his doctor took him off all medication. He still sees the doctor every 6 months, and his levels remain at normal. (We also both lost weight, about 25 pounds each, right away eating healthy, thus leading us to feel so much better.) The doctor literally said if all his patients ate like this, he'd go out of business. My daughter used to suffer from frequent migraines, and now they are rare. Her acne issues - gone. Our skin, hair and nails - much stronger and healthier looking. My IBS - gone. Our energy levels - way up. It feels amazing to eat only healthy actual food with none of the poison. As you can tell, I'm passionate about it. Many women from our church have asked to meet with me to mentor them on how to make the switch. I'm hearing back the same awesome results as my family experienced. I pray that many, many more wives and moms would get on board with feeding their families simply what God intended for us to eat. It's a change that they would not regret.
helen · 542 weeks ago
thanks for this post and I appreciate your distinction over things that are not sin issues and where there isn't a black and white clear answer in scripture. My take on everything else is that if our thinking and actions do not align with Gods word, we are ALWAYS in the wrong!. As it says in Psalm 12 'the words of the LORD, are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times'. I absolutely love this verse and come back to it time after time, there are so many riches just in this one verse!.
Blessings
Helen UK
Kim · 542 weeks ago
While reading woman's journals from the past, I remember one saying how women that didn't get their laundry on the drying line by a certain hour (around 8am, I think) showed laziness. How about a sign that a worthy woman was that her house was so clean you could eat off her floor.
It seems that we produce "measuring tools" as society deems. It used to be your dress, laundry, and floor that defined you. Now it's your paycheck.
Cynthia · 542 weeks ago
A vegetarian friend once pointed out to me the interesting sequence of food introduction. In the Garden of Eden, fruit was considered the ideal food. After mankind was banished from the garden, there was the introduction of foods requiring more intense farming, such as grains. There is no discussion of eating meat until after the Flood, in Genesis 9, and then it comes with a warning not to consume the blood. Later, in Leviticus, the Israelites are given many rules concerning permitted and forbidden creatures - but aside from the Tree of Knowledge and Tree of Life, there are no rules prohibiting plants and grains. With milk, the rule is simply that a kid cannot be cooked in its mother's milk.
Ken · 542 weeks ago
"For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges" (1 Cor. 5:12-13).
and thus: "The spiritual person judges all things" (1 Cor. 2:15).
And what do we judge with? "righteous judgment" and the Word of God:
"Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” (John 7:24).
"Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!" (1 Cor. 6:3).
The list goes on requiring the believer as they mature to understand the Word of God and to judge what is right and what is wrong. The idea that Christians are not to "judge" or "judge others behavior" is false. How can one rebuke or exhort as admonished if we do not judge and judge accurately according to God's Word?
What Christians misunderstand is that even being judgmental is simply making a moral judgment. If we cannot make moral judgments we cannot teach and train. We judge no man outside of the faith, but we let the Word of God judge them as that will be their judge at the end of time. Jesus says:
"The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day." (John 12:48).
If intelligence is the ability to process information, wisdom is the ability to correctly and accurately judge what is right, wrong, better and best. When a Mom nurses her baby is it is best for at least a year, and three months is better than nothing. These are judgments based on wisdom and knowledge, and wisdom is to be greatly pursued as it comes from the source of God Himself who knows best. Science, health and medicine can give us great wisdom, so can we learn from the wisdom of our elders and those who go before us. Every word of wisdom is a judgment speaking to what is right, wrong, better or best. It is not the person to be judged, but the words spoken and believed are to always be tested and judged if they are true or not.
Too many confused the speaking of truth and God's truth as being judgmental. If judgmental means what the dictionary says it means, then even being judgmental is not a bad thing, so long as we do it in love, compassion, and in away that allows others to disagree, and seek for themselves the truth. Most of all not to seek out any one person and judge them, but to speak truth and judgment for all based on God's Word and ideals is a good thing. For how will others know the truth if it is no longer spoken in a world that everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes?
Ann · 542 weeks ago
I think there is a fine line between fulfilling the Titus 2 exhortation and telling others your opinion especially if it is unsolicited about how you think they should be keeping their homes. I believe the wisest way for older women to do this is to lead by example, be an encouragement yo younger women and urge them to seek God and honor their husbands wishes when it comes to making specific choices.
Ann
Ann · 542 weeks ago
Tonya · 542 weeks ago
Lori Alexander 122p · 542 weeks ago
Betsy · 542 weeks ago
Desiree · 542 weeks ago
kellyccrn 0p · 541 weeks ago
My husband also committed infidelity. I chose to forgive him (as God calls us to do) rather than divorce him. Infidelity is a Biblical reason to divorce my husband, Again, had I chose to divorce my husband, I'd have to work in order to support myself and my son. We went to counseling but then less than 4 months after my discovering his infidelity, I got cancer!!! So, the counseling got put on hold. It was only through my faith in our Lord (and a few blog posts on Women Living Well and To Love Honor and Vacuum) that I got through the roughest period of my then 39 years on earth.