“As a newborn baby breathes and cries, so the signs of life in a newborn Christian are faith and repentance, inhaling the love of God and exhaling an initial cry of distress. And at that point what God provides, exactly as for a newborn infant, is the comfort, protection, and nurturing promise of a mother. "If God is our father, the church is our mother." The words are those of the Swiss Reformer John Calvin ... it is as impossible, unnecessary, and undesirable to be a Christian all by yourself as it is to be a newborn baby all by yourself.” IfsChristianMotherFatherChurchImpossibleCryBabyComfortPromiseProtectionBreatheGod LoveRepentanceUnnecessaryDistressInfantInitialsOur FatherNurturingNewbornReformersSwissUndesirableNewborn BabySigns Of LifeGod ProvidesExhaling Author:N. T. Wright
“Man begins life helpless. The babe is in paroxysms of fear the moment its nurse leaves it alone, and it comes so slowly to any power of self-protection that mothers say the salvation of the life and health of a young child is a perpetual miracle.” MenChildrenSelfMomentsYoungMotherFearMiracleSalvationProtectionNursePerpetualHelplessBabeYoung ChildrenSelf Protection Book:The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude Source: The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude
“Ah! how much a mother learns from her child! The constant protection of a helpless being forces us to so strict an alliance with virtue, that a woman never shows to full advantage except as a mother. Then alone can her character expand in the fulfillment of all life's duties and the enjoyment of all its pleasures.” ChildrenCharacterShowsMotherForcePleasureVirtueDutyAdvantageConstantProtectionFulfillmentEnjoymentHelplessStrictAlliances Book:Letters of Two Brides Source: Letters of Two Brides