ARE THERE SPIRITUAL PENALTIES TO NEVER HAVING CHILDREN?
A new friend of mine, Lois, recently asked if God would be displeased because she has never been a mother, never having married. She is motherly to everyone, including a niece, but wonders if this lack in her life might compromise her spiritual path in any way?
“Motherhood is not for everyone and this is the case with Lois. She has been protected from having to live with that onerous responsibility because she was meant for higher responsibilities. Too many times the children of a particular candidate for services to the Upper Realms can derail that person’s hopes and dreams….and Ours, too! Motherhood and Fatherhood is not actually a prerequisite for anything in a spiritual kingdom, other than the fact that it is a great big test. Everyone must answer for their daily behavior as a parent and they bear a lot of responsibility for the way that their children grow up.
So, it is Our Favor to excuse or protect certain people from ever having to go through that particular onerous duty. It can be a great joy and it is very fulfilling to establish a family but it might not be a tranquil experience even in the best of families.
It is a Boot Camp that the majority of the human race must endure simply to provide an ongoing population. And it doesn’t mean that a person is finished with their trials if they raise their children uneventfully because they are still tied to the ensuing generations. Actually, they never completely escape this endless wheel of existence that parenthood provides them because, as Lois well knows, many generations beyond will often quote their lifetimes for good or for evil.
It is no accident that the priesthood, in ancient societies and even in modern day religious orders, is excused from this line of participation in the flow of human geneological history. The priesthood’s children are spiritual ones and they nourish the souls, if not their growing, learning bodies. The Divine Role on Earth has the same general responsibilities but it’s more vast and more quietly underlying than being a parent of a relatively-few children. Their family is the human family and the advancement of mankind as a whole.
Not all priests are celibate and many modern ones, particularly, marry and become parents. But this divides their time and attention and makes it harder to spread themselves so thin in tending to their “flock,” who of often require a great chunk of their lives.
So, tell Lois not to worry about this necessary exclusion from the human onerous responsiblity. She can simply enjoy being a surrogate mother in her normal activities. She will be influential in many ways which motherhood may have made impossible to visualize for herself. Many family obligations prevent actively spiritual people from taking hold of opportunities that come their way. She is free to live her own life as it unfolds for her.”
