The final days of pregnancy are filled with an eager anticipation to meet the precious child who’s been nourished and nurtured in the womb for nine months.

After months of feathering the nest, deciding on names, and buying cute clothes in pink, I’m more than ready to welcome my sweet baby girl into this world. My family is bubbling over with excitement, too!

Over the years, I’ve witnessed a shift in our culture’s approach to pregnancy and motherhood. Even though family size is shrinking, there is an ever-growing market toward the expectant mother, with a huge emphasis on acquiring more and more things for her upcoming arrival.

These days, mothers are expected to design a cute nursery with attention to all the details from the paint to the crib ruffle (for a baby who just longs to sleep next to mom), fill a closet full of clothes (of which a few articles of clothing are really even necessary), purchase a plethora of electronic, vibrating and noise-making contraptions to “soothe” and occupy baby (who would much rather be carried next to mom’s warm chest for most of the day), and of course have a fancy, trendy diaper bag to lug around all of those baby “essentials”. At birth, the emphasis is often on the mother and her experience.

I wonder if this type of focus can distract from motherhood. Birth is more than an “empowering experience for mom” and motherhood is more than a cute baby to enjoy. Motherhood is heart training, soul shaping, multi-generational, eternal work.

With my newborn son in 2009

Meeting our newborn babies for the first time fills us with incredible joy. If our focus is inward, though, as this “me-centered” culture tells us it should be, we will more easily become discouraged with the demands of motherhood.

But when our perspective is eternal and our vision generational and when we understand the impact of our role as mothers, we can find joy in the selfless work of raising children. When we believe the Lord has equipped us for the joy and the trials that come with each blessing he places in our care, we are less likely to become weary with the demands of the newborn days. And when our strength is renewed through Christ and our souls find rest in Him, it is easier to fully soak up the amazement of life. Our own hearts are nourished as we delight in these days.

The Lord has really laid on my heart lately a desire to clear from my life the excess (physically, emotionally, spiritually) that clouds my vision and hinders my ability to fully serve Him. I have joined together with 12 other women who are passionate about the call to live a more simple life with an eternal focus and I can’t wait to share with you a project we have been diligently and prayerfully working on! We will soon be releasing an eBook to encourage other homemakers in their call to simplicty and we will be launching a website that we pray will be a community to share with each other the challenges of living in a culture of adunance and the true peace and joy of we find when we choose to build our homes for the glory of God and not of this world.

I will be sharing more details in the coming weeks, but right now I want to highlight a section from our book, which is written to encourage homemakers in the important work we are called to. Below is an excerpt from a chapter written to mothers on the value of a godly legacy and the importance of being intentional about the work we do as keepers of our homes.

It was a cold winter morning. I stared out the hospital window at the snow piled up on the rooftops. I was grateful to be in a warm bed, in from the harsh bitter cold, even if it wasn’t my own bed or my own home.

I held my newborn son against my chest, covering both of us with a warm blanket and taking in the feel of his soft bare skin against mine. I kissed his little head and breathed in the scent of a newborn babe. He just finished nursing and was now content and drifting off to sleep. Our nursing relationship was off to a great start, and I was grateful. His jaundice was beginning to pass, and we would soon be going home.

As I held him upright and squeezed him just a little tighter, I looked off into the distance and took a moment to thank the Lord for this blessing in my life. I thanked Him for his grace, His provision, and for watching over me as I brought another precious child into the world.

The birth of each new child is a reminder of God’s goodness and grace. He has given another blessing to me and my husband and has entrusted us with the task of raising this precious soul for Him. Despite my tarnished past and despite the mistakes He knows I will make in the future, He has chosen to place this child in my care. I asked the Lord, in that moment, to help me remember the enormity of this and to rely on Him to help me with this task he has equipped me to do. I smiled as my heart filled to the brim and breathed a sigh of relief as I rested in the peace and comfort of knowing I was not alone in this journey.

Just then, in the middle of my prayer, a nurse walked in and stopped abruptly, as if realizing she was interrupting a sacred moment. She pause briefly and then said, “Now THAT is a picture of a mother.”

As a labor and delivery nurse, she saw mothers holding their babies all day long, each and every day. What was it that she saw in me that morning? Was it the way I was dressed or how I wore my hair? No, it was what she saw from within. She saw a mother who had chosen to die to self to take on the sacrificial work of raising a child to bring glory to God. She saw a woman who chose to live by the Spirit, letting go of selfish personal desires and purposing instead to seek God’s will for her role as a mother and keeper of her home. She saw the joy that can only come from within, from a heart that has been transformed by the grace of God. And that is true beauty. That is the picture of a mother.

“…that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

A picture of a mother is a woman who loves God with all her heart, soul, and mind and desires to glorify God in all that she does. This is a beauty that shines from within, a gentle grace that can win over souls–those of her family and those of the world.

“Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” ~Peter 3:3-4

I recall this moment from the birth of my last son as I prepare my heart for this season of motherhood, a season I’ve savored and cherished before and am excited to enter into once again. I am preparing my heart to meet my precious child face to face, my child I already know so intimately after nine exciting months. I am filled with anticipation and joy beyond words and I am praising the Lord for this new blessing in my family! I would be so grateful for prayers for a safe delivery and healthy baby.