Facing the Truth About Children

I remember the moment like a misstep I wish I could rewind. A casual comment about my child’s quirky outfit met with laughter by those who didn’t know them escaped my lips before my heart could catch it. The chuckles rolled through the room, but the ache rolled through my chest.

What had I just done?

In that moment, I had joined in the world’s half-truths about children. I had traded reverence for relatability. I had forgotten who they are not just in my eyes, but in God’s.

Modern culture often labels children with words like chaos, burden, interruption, noise. But these are not the titles God gives. Scripture uses different words entirely: heritage, reward, blessing, arrows in the hand of a warrior. And those divine titles are not for the future versions of our children they are true of them right now.

As Christian parents, especially mothers, we must reclaim the truth God speaks over our children. Our words have the power not only to reflect His heart but also to shape theirs.

What God Says About Children

1. Children Are a Heritage.

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). They are not burdens we bear but blessings we receive not tasks to complete, but treasures entrusted. They are the legacy God gives, part of His inheritance passed from one generation to the next.

2. Children Are a Reward.

Psalm 127 goes on: “The fruit of the womb a reward.” These little ones, with all their needs and noise, are not punishment or inconvenience they are reward. We don’t need to wait until they grow up to cherish them. They are worth celebrating now.

3. Children Are Arrows.

“Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth” (Psalm 127:4). Before they’re released into the world, they rest in our quiver to be shaped, sharpened, and aimed with love and truth. Our daily presence, correction, and care is God’s way of forming their trajectory.

4. Children Are a Blessing.

The Bible doesn’t hesitate to call them this, and neither should we. Jesus Himself delighted in them, lifted them up as models of faith (Matthew 18:2–4), and invited them to come to Him when others tried to keep them away (Mark 10:14).

If we see our children as nothing more than noise or obligation, we risk misrepresenting God’s heart to them and to a watching world.

What the World Gets Wrong

The world often assigns value based on productivity or independence. Children disrupt both. They are slow, needy, emotionally unpredictable. But they are also exactly what God uses to teach us love, patience, faith, and selflessness.

And if we're honest, even Christian parents can adopt the world’s tone. We complain, joke, or vent in ways that devalue the very people we’ve been called to cherish. In doing so, we reduce eternal souls to momentary frustrations and holy work to chore charts.

This is not to say we can’t be honest about hard days. But there’s a difference between venting and vision. One focuses on how children affect us. The other sees how God is working in and through them and us.

Your Words Shape Their World

Mothers, your children are listening. And your words are teaching them who they are long before the world does.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). What we say about our children doesn’t just shape how others see them it shapes how they see themselves. It tells them whether they are interruptions or invitations, burdens or blessings.

When we speak of them with honor, we reflect God’s image. When we speak of them with flippancy or frustration, we risk dulling that image in their hearts and ours.

Let us be the kind of mothers whose words tell the truth not just for our children’s sake, but for Christ’s.

Receiving Our Children in His Name

In Mark 9:37, Jesus said, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.” What a powerful picture that welcoming our children is a form of welcoming Christ Himself.

That means every act of devotion to your child every diaper changed, every boo-boo kissed, every bedtime story and midnight rock is an act of devotion to the Lord. Not one moment is wasted when it’s given in His name.

As Paul wrote, “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls” (2 Corinthians 12:15). That’s what motherhood is: pouring out our bodies, time, sleep, and self for the sake of our children’s souls.

And when the days are long and noisy and full of needs and you feel your strength waning remember this your Heavenly Father is near. He sees. He supplies. He knows the truth about children, and He will remind your heart if you forget.

Telling the Truth Together

As believers, we must also watch our speech in community. It’s easy to slip into jokes or stories that minimize the beauty of motherhood or turn our children into punchlines. We may feel safe to vent around other parents, but let’s ask: are we honoring our children in the way we speak?

Yes, counsel is needed in hard seasons. But even as we seek wisdom, let us aim to protect the dignity and trust of our children and the truth about their God-given worth.

One day, our homes will be quiet. The toys will be packed away, the little shoes outgrown. But we don’t have to wait until then to cherish what we have now.

We can begin today.

Let us speak to our children and about them as God does:

• You are not a problem to be solved.

• You are not too much or in the way.

• You are not chaos or inconvenience.

• You are a gift.

• You are a heritage.

• You are a reward.

• You are a blessing.

• You are loved deeply, daily, and by design.

Let the world hear us say it. Let our children hear us believe it. Let our words about them reflect the heart of the One who formed them.

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