Tuesday night Fox News kept showing footage of angry protesters (mostly young women in less than modest attire) outside the Supreme Court building demanding that the justices not overturn Roe v. Wade. I wasn’t really surprised, but I still felt sad that they couldn’t understand that abortion takes the lives of the most vulnerable and innocent human beings. I also felt angered by their obvious selfishness. Essentially, they want sexual pleasure without its consequential responsibilities.

How odd to watch such a display mere days before Mother’s Day. Does anyone else see the irony of it? The commercials bookending shots of the protesters showed airbrushed images of devoted mothers who clearly cherished their children, urging fathers to buy them roses, chocolate and jewelry as tokens of appreciation. The mothers in the commercials clearly glowed with joy over the privilege of having brought little lives into the world. How different from the young women outside the Supreme Court who demanded to destroy their children before those children were even born!

Motherhood sometimes is inconvenient and difficult, certainly. Airbrushed commercials neglect to mention the countless sacrifices women make in order to bear and raise children. Please understand that I don’t ignore the truth that moms go through a lot of hardships and disappointments. Perhaps many of those protesters fear the challenges of motherhood precisely for those reasons. But, while I don’t want to minimize the downside of being a mom, I think it’s important to remember what Scripture teaches about children.

³ Behold, children are a gift of the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
⁴ Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth. ~~Psalm 127:3-4 (NASB95)

Having children is not an inconvenience; it’s a reward from the Lord! Parenthood, then, should be joyfully embraced with thankfulness to Him. What a beautiful thing to have another human being grow inside of you for nine months, and then to raise a child from infancy to adulthood! Although I don’t have firsthand experience at motherhood, I’ve watched many of my friends enjoy their children.

About a year before my mother-in-law died, I asked her what her greatest accomplishment was. Without any hesitation whatsoever, she smiled and answered, “My children!” Because I knew some of the struggles she’d gone through with John’s Polio, her older daughter’s death from breast cancer and less traumatic issues with her younger daughter, I was somewhat surprised by her reply. But she seemed more focused on how much she had enjoyed bringing them up. Certainly, she never thought of them as getting in the way of how she wanted to spend how life.

For all the challenges of motherhood, there are joys. When John and I watch our wedding video each anniversary, I’m struck by my mom’s radiance as the usher walked her up the aisle to her seat. She probably thought back to her pregnancy, when she fought tooth and nail to avoid another miscarriage. Maybe she remembered the doctors who said I’d never be anything but a vegetable, the teacher who said I’d never go to high school and the occupational therapist who said I’d never marry. Maybe she remembered how she worked to give me as many normal childhood experiences as possible, and how she paid for me to attend a private college and later travel to Wales, Toronto and several American states. But my wedding gave her joy.

Those young protesters outside the Supreme Court have no idea what they’re throwing away by demanding abortion. I pray this Mother’s Day might cause them to think.