When God created women, He knew well beforehand that they would become mothers. I have no doubt in my mind He had a long list of what a mother’s qualities and characteristics not only would be but needed to be. Those included loving and show unconditional love, compassionate, friendly, unselfish, kind, patience, teaching their children right and wrong as well as God and how Jesus died on the cross.
For obvious reasons, Jesus dying on the cross is number one as we need to do all we can as mothers to make sure our children spend an eternity in heaven. The child will make the ultimate decision but we must at least show them the way. The one is giving unconditional love. We must always love our children no matter what they might do because they are our gifts given to us for a short time from God.
After those two, I have no doubt He decided the next most important quality a mom needed to have was the ability to nurture her children. So what does nurture mean exactly? Well I went to dictionary.com and here is what they had:
verb (used with object)
1. to feed and protect: to nurture one’s offspring.
2. to support and encourage, as during the period of training or development; foster: to nurture promising musicians.
3. to bring up; train; educate.
noun
4. rearing, upbringing, training, education, or the like.
5. development: the nurture of young artists.
6. something that nourishes; nourishment; food.
Nurturing encompasses so much. We, as mothers, must do all the other qualities I named before. It is to raise our children in a loving way. We are to always be there for them, even if we don’t agree with what they are doing but simply tell them we love them. We are to make sure they are fed properly and given not only enough clothes but appropriate clothes to wear. We need to make sure our children are educated so that one day they can grow up and be responsible adult in both their finances as well as in the work place or being a stay-at-home mom or dad. As a mom, or dad for that matter, we need to be good role models as to how they should be once they, themselves, become moms and dads.
By doing all of this we then nurture our children. My sincerest hope is that I was able to nurture Mari the way I needed to. I feel in my heart I did the best I could. She was the pride and joy of my life for eight and half years and she continues to be even in death through her spirit.
I have to take what I learned from nurturing my beautiful little baby girl and now do this with my niece and nephew as my husband and I raise them to one day be adults. To nurture truly means to love unconditionally just like our Father in heaven did for us by sending His only Son to die on the cross for our sins.
It’s hard to consider the word “nurture” and not think of mothers. A perfect fit.
Thank you Pegg. I agree completely.
What a blessing that your niece and nephew have you as their nurturing angel!
Chris, that put a smile on my face. That is a nice way to think of me and my husband for the two kids since they didn’t have a mom and dad who could be the parents they needed.
Kristena – Nurturing as unconditional love. I had not thought about it that way before. Very good and compelling point. Thank you for sharing your heart with us.
Carol, it put a smile on my face to be able to write something that helps someone see something in a new way. It kind of amazes me that I have the ability as a writer to be able to do that. 🙂
I loved all the definitions of nurture – they are all somewhat different but all to true, especially when it comes to parenting and mentoring.
Tracy, I’m glad you enjoyed the definitions. When I was writing this last night I hadn’t planned on doing that but halfway through I had the idea to go look it up. I, myself, thought it very interesting to see what the dictionary had to say as they are all so true, as you said.
Thank you Kristena – I like the thought of nurturing the children so that they can nurture their children.
Bill, I’m glad that the thought that we, as a society, if we teach our children what nurturing means by showing it to our own children then those children we hopefully in turn do it for their own, struck a cord with you. Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts.
Thank you, Kristena. This post is a gentle reminder of what it means to be a parent. How important it is to raise our children and our children’s children to love and care for others.
Rhonda, thank you for your beautiful comment. It means so much to me.
Thank you Kristena. Good reminders as I nurture my kids.
Mike, it feels good to know people can relate to what I have written. 🙂
You covered the first two things that came to my mind on this topic, Kristena. 1. God 2. My mother
Judging by the heart you put into your posts, and the love that comes across for your daughter, I’ve no doubt you nurtured Mari above and beyond what she needed.
God bless you.
Deborah, you brought tears to my eyes with what you wrote. Thank you for seeing the love I have for my daughter through my words. That has been my goal from the beginning. My dedicating this site to her, all I have ever wanted is for her to be remembered by what I write. Seeing a comment like yours tells me I am doing it right.
Thank you for this wonderful post-it blessed my day.
Terrie, you are so welcome. And thank you for stopping by and taking the time to comment. It is nice to know something I say can bless someone else.
I also like how you equated nurturing with unconditional love. This is so very true. It’s very difficult to allow the closeness and fellowship necessary for teaching and guidance from someone who does not earn our trust with complete love and acceptance.
Thank you. 🙂
SandiGrace, You are so right. Without unconditional love as parents we can’t be nurturing like God intended us to be.
Excellent post, Kristena. I try to nurture my nieces and nephew whenever possible, encouraging them with praise and trying to be firm but kind when I have to correct or discipline them.
Thank you Traci. I think we all need to do that so we can raise our children into being the best adults we can make them to be. They will obviously make some mistakes along the way but we hope and pray that they will do the right thing in the end.
Good stuff, nurturing as a way of life and something we pass on to our children. Love it!!
Thank you Chris. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
As others have said, your heart shows through your writings here that you are obviously a great mother. God bless you.
Adam, thank you so much for your kind words. It brings me joy to know that my words can show through how much I loved my daughter.