Nancy Leigh DeMoss:

I think about Paul saying to Timothy in 1 Timothy, chapter 5, that the younger widows he's speaking of particularly, were to marry, to bear children, to keep house (v. 14). He's talking about not just widows, but the role and the calling of women--that a huge part of their purpose in life is to be helpers to their husbands and bearers and nurturers of children. In fact, it goes so far as to say--in a passage that admittedly is complex--but in chapter 2 of 1 Timothy (v.15) that women, in some sense, are saved through childbearing.

Now, we know with the rest of Scripture he is not talking about their eternal salvation. But in that same passage, he talks about Timothy being saved through preaching. And I think what he's saying is that Timothy's God-given role was to be a preacher. And that he would demonstrate his salvation and his perseverance in his faith through doing what God had called him to do. And that likewise, women generally are called by God to give birth to children; to rear up children who have a heart for God and that in so doing, they demonstrate their genuineness of their profession of faith...that they demonstrate that they are committed and submitted to God's will and plan for their lives.

And Holly, I guess what concerns me is that so many women today are making choices that they are making for some of the reasons that you described which really do, in many cases, come back to, "What do I want? What's best for me?" Reasons that are selfish rather than saying, "Why did God put me here on this earth? What was God's purpose in creating me and how can I best fulfill that purpose?"

You know, as you read through the Old Testament, it's so exciting to see that God is the giver of life, He's the creator of life. And that's a big part of God's means of taking the redemptive story and Gospel to the world, is through the willingness of godly parents to have a godly seed...to raise up children who will take the Gospel to the world.

We've heard it said in one of the objections, and we'll pick up on some more of these tomorrow, but one of the concerns is that: "This world is so violent, it's so evil. And I don't want to bring children into this kind of a world." And there's an understandable fear that I think many mothers have as they look at the world around us today. But the challenge, I think for women of God, is to not give into that fear but to accept this calling: to bring forth children into the world and to trust that God is going to use those children to be a light, to be salt, to be "difference makers," and to be the ones who deal with the issues facing our world and take the light of Christ's Gospel into the world.

So really--(for) the problems we're concerned about in part--God's way of addressing those issues is to say, "Women are you willing, and couples are you willing, to bring forth children into this world who will be part of God's solution, part of God's means of taking the Gospel into this very dark world?"