Freedom from Bondage?

Women the world over are choosing career over family, encouraged by the ideas that women should live for themselves and avoid the bondage of marriage and family—or at least delay it! This trend is contributing to decreasing fertility rates around the globe—often to below replacement levels.

Recently, Canadian columnist Margaret Wente, writing in The Globe and Mail, voiced a concern about this alarming trend that is leaving many women unintentionally childless (“Where have all the mommies gone?,” May 11, 2018). In her article, Ms. Wente shares her own decisions and priorities and their sad consequences. Her article highlights the growing problem of a culture that encourages women to seek the “freedom” to develop their careers while avoiding what some see as the “bondage” of matrimony and motherhood. Saying that she was “too fond” of her career, she writes, “By the time I got around to contemplating my options, they were gone… Childlessness wasn’t a choice, really. It was more or less an accident, just as it was for millions of other women….”

Ms. Wente’s column caught the eye of another Canadian, renowned journalist Ted Byfield, founder of the Alberta Report. Noting her observation concerning how many women pursue the goals of professional work and career, only to accidentally lose out on the more fulfilling opportunities of family and children, Mr. Byfield mused on his blog, “Perfect freedom… might mean: Get married, have children, and actively seek servitude to God. Then one day you will realize that in abandoning all hope of freedom, you have actually acquired it” (“The Mother’s Day question that one columnist did not shrink to ask,” tedbyfield.wordpress.com, May 14, 2018).

The Bible reminds us that Satan—the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4)—has deceived the entire world (Revelation 12:9)! Beginning in the Garden of Eden, he has convinced humanity that any choice can lead to happiness and fulfillment, as long as it is not the choice of following God’s instructions in His word. As Scripture warns us, “It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23) and “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12). The way to a truly happy and abundant life is outlined in the Bible, and available to all who choose that way. For more encouraging information on how to become truly happy, watch our telecast “Keys to Happiness.”