The Blessed Vocation of Motherhood

What a blessed thing to be a wife and mother! This is a vocation that is well-pleasing unto God, for God has instituted the estate of matrimony and ordained all that it comprises.

1921 Carl Manthey-Zorn Concordia Publishing House

The following is the first letter from Eunice: Letters of a Fatherly Friend to a Young Christian Mother, published by Concordia Publishing House in 1921 as a translation from the original German by Rev. Carl Manthey-Zorn. The full book may be read for free at https://archive.org/details/zorn-eunice.

DEAR EUNICE:
May God bless you, dear Eunice, and may the Savior comfort you!

You are now a wife and a mother. What a blessed thing that is! Without any question whatever this is a vocation that is well-pleasing unto God. For God has instituted the estate of matrimony and ordained all that it comprises. Did not God create man "male and female"? Did not God bless them and say unto them: "Be fruitful and multiply"? Is it not He who ordained that man and wife should be "one flesh"?1 - True, after the Fall God laid much pain and sorrow upon child-bearing,2 but that is not saying that God no longer regards matrimony a sacred estate upon which He delights to lay His richest blessings. No, while the earth continues, matrimony shall be a sacred and a blessed institution.3

Now, no doubt, you have tasted the pain and sorrow of it all. Did you think, at times, that God was angry with you? O Eunice, you are a beloved child of God through faith in Christ Jesus!4 When the pain and sorrow and fear of pregnancy and childbirth come upon you, God only wants you in full and childlike trust to fly to Him as to your dear heavenly Father, and to say to Him:

O God of mercy, pity me!
Thou bidst me bring my grief to Thee.
Thine own beloved child am I,
Though hell and world and sin decry.
My Lord and God, Thou art my Stay,
In Thee am I content alway;
Thou art my Jesus, Savior, Friend,
My Comforter, world without end.
This cheers my heart and makes me bold;
In every storm to Thee I hold;
Thy Word shall light my paths again:
O God of mercy, hear! Amen.

Eunice, dear child of God, I implore you, beware of the evil spirit and of the ungodly talk that is current with increasing brazenness among unbelieving women, and has bewitched and seduced so many — alas! — who profess to be Christians.5 I mean such talk as when a woman says: "I won't have any children!" Or: "I am willing to have one or two, but that is enough. It is so troublesome to have them, and to raise them is a lot of trouble too. It costs too much to have children and to raise them, especially nowadays, when everything costs so much." And they act accordingly, as you may well know. In various ways they prevent pregnancy. But it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.6 Some, when they become aware of their pregnancy, get rid of it. That is downright murder. Such a wicked woman will say: "As long as it is not born, it is only a part of myself, and I have a right to do as I please with myself." But those are vain words.7 The old saying is true: It is better to raise ten than to have to answer for one.

Eunice, dear child of God, let God's Holy Spirit lead you!8 Let the Word of God be your guide.9 God the Holy Spirit, in the Word of God, says that God bestows His blessings on child-bearing.10 "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is His reward. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them."11 Gladly accept the children your Father in heaven bestows upon you. Pray for every child you bear, yes, pray for it, that it may be the Lord's child eternally. There is another old saying: The more children you have, the more you pray.

May the good Spirit of God and His faithful Word rule your mind, my dear Eunice! You want to be saved, I am sure. Now, you shall be saved in child-bearing; childbearing is the way in which God wants to lead you to salvation, if you continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety, not allowing the Evil Spirit and wicked talk to beguile you.12

This is the prayer of
YOUR OLD FRIEND.