The following is another excerpt from Our Bodies Our Souls by Rebbetzin Heller, which I read over Shavuos. I just had to share it here because it is so beautiful. It really speaks to what it is that we want when we say we want to raise families.
Any intelligent woman, secular or religious, is no doubt aware of the many rewards of mothering…Yet a Jewish mother has still a deeper dimension.
The descendants of Avraham are compared to the stars, each of which has its own fire and radiates its own light. Each Jewish child — indeed, every child — has a unique message to bring forth. When a woman has a spiritual worldview, she realizes that in nurturing the development of another human being she is ultimately enabling someone to bring a specific spiritual light into the world. The kind of world we live in is ultimately a result of the spirituality of the people who comprise it…
Simultaneously, spiritually conscious mothering involves much more personal growth on the part of the mother…Mothering allows a woman to directly and experientially address the aspects of herself that are most G-dly and thus build herself. This can happen only if the mother has the specific spiritual awareness that a religious outlook imparts.
