Motherhood is Not Automatic

^"Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled." Titus 2:3-5

There is a quiet assumption that motherhood should come naturally - that women should instantly know how to love their children, care for their homes effortlessly, and support their husbands without struggle. Titus 2:3-5 gently pushes back on this notion and reveals that motherhood and wifehood are not automatic but learned.

Paul, in these verses, instructs older women in the faith to train younger women in how to love their husbands and children. That word train tells us something important: we need discipleship! We need wisdom, correction, encouragement, and models to follow.

We weren't meant to mother in isolation. We were designed for community, for connection generationally, and for dependence not on just each other but ultimately the Holy Spirit. When we don't know what to do, that does not mean we are failing - it means we're being sanctified.

Motherhood is a sacred calling that transforms us. It stretches our patience, uncovers our idols, and calls us to die to ourselves daily. That kind of growth just doesn’t show up; it doesn’t just come through instinct alone; it comes by being shaped, by both God and by those who have gone before us.

So let’s stop expecting perfection from ourselves. Let's stop believing we should already know how to do something or figure things out alone. Instead, let’s lean into God's design: to be taught, to be led, to be made holy through everyday life of loving and learning!