Bearing spiritual fruit as mothers

We are working through Denise Glenn's book 'Freedom for Mothers' at the Mum's group at church this term.  It's central theme is taken from John 15:5:

"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing."

As we abide in God He meets our need for love and acceptance and He fills us with his Spirit.  As a result of this we are able to bear fruit as mothers:

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control."  (Galatians 5:22-23)

I long for even more of this fruit in my relationship with my children.  I would like to be more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self controlled with them.  I can't do it by trying harder in my own strength, but as I abide in God his Spirit works in me to produce these fruit.

Our goal for our children

"What is our goal for our children? To be happy? To have good jobs? Our main goal must be to train them to follow God. Our children are not our own, they belong to Him and we have a responsibility before Him to train them."

- Carl and Virginia Herrington in their article "Building families that embrace mission"

It is easy as parents to get drawn into following the world's values in parenting our children. But what does the Bible say about some of these common aspirations...

Is our goal to raise happy children?

Is our goal to raise well behaved children?

Is our goal to raise well educated children?

Is our goal to raise children with a financially secure future?

Is our goal to raise successful children?

These may be good things but are they God's best? Our goal is to raise children who above everything else follow Jesus' example to:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength... [and] Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:30-31)

God's best

Over the summer the Women's group at church have been working through Cynthia Heald's book "Becoming a Woman of Simplicity". I have found it helpful and although it does not specifically discuss Mothering, it does speak to issues that are very relevent to us as mothers.

One of the main points she raises can be summed up by this quote in the book, from Gordon MacDonald's father:

"Your challenge will not be in separating out the good from the bad, but in grabbing the best out of all the possible good".

Cynthia writes, "My concern is that we live in a world where doing, communicating, and possessing so rule our lives that we have allowed even good things to overtake our time and distract from the best."

She recalls,"I was involved in worthy things: helping in my childrens schools and activities, being in a garden club, serving in Sunday school, teaching a Bible study, inviting friends over for a meal. All of these activities were good, but my problem was that I was committed to doing them all at the same time. As a result I felt pulled in many directions and eventually realized that I was missing out on what was most important. My busy life was robbing me of my most precious relationships - my time with the Lord and my family...I was doing a lot of good things but they were taking the place of the most important. I needed to abide [in Him]."

"Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."  (John 15:5)