I will never be able to say enough about what an honor it is to be a mother.

And what I mean by that is not that I feel I’ve attained, as proven by the maternal status achieved. Or that I am now elevated in my womanhood because children have been born to me. Check that box, cross that off, on to the next level of achievement.

No, I don’t really mean that in any sort of me-focused way at all. What I really mean when I say that is that babies are a miracle, and that investing in people who will go farther and reach wider and live beyond me is more than just worthwhile: it is everything.

Woman, whoever you are reading this: people are everything. Are you young, old, single, married, mother many times or faced with barrenness? No matter the “when” of your season of life, you can step into this amazing honor and begin to see people — all people — as worth the gift of life. Your life.

I spend a lot of time and thought trying to be a better mother. But here’s something we have to get right, before we figure out how and when to feed or train or prod or protect: every life is valuable because every life is created by God. These children here in my home: they’re not worth loving because they came from my womb. No, it has nothing to do with me. They are worth loving because they bear the image of God.

This is humbling. It is awe-inspiring. It awakens my soul to see beyond these 6 here in my home, and to begin to see this beautiful collage of humanity as valuable. As delighted in, sung over, bled and died for — by God.