“I’ve tried my very best to live a life of my own making, not just a series of events that have happened to me, one I can stand back and look at and recognise my own handwriting all over, sometimes messy and scrawling, sometimes careful and precise, but one that I’ve carved with my own hand. And I wouldn’t of been able to do this without employing a woman’s right to choose. To choose when to have my children and with whom.” - Actress Michelle Williams, Golden Globes 2020

Remnant Reader's Comment:

Babies Make Dreams Better

by Andrea Tardiff

I was definitely saddened by Michelle Williams’ Golden Globes speech. And I am so proud to know so many women standing against the lie that children can be sacrificed on the altar of success. However, some of the response from fellow pro-lifers has included the phrase “babies don’t keep us from our dreams” and that sentiment seems a little off to me.

I think a better phrase might be “babies refine our dreams”.

Accepting children does put limitations on us. Being a mother is probably the hardest work I have ever done. There are honestly certain things I cannot do in the season of life with very little ones. They currently take up most of my energies. It requires us to put a particular person above our own wants and desires.

So, sometimes we may have to forgo a dream or desire (sometimes permanently or sometimes temporarily) in order to care for the ones we love and to nourish the family that God has given us. We often have to make sacrifices in the moment for what is good. Or we realize a particular dream wasn’t such a good one after all because our priorities have changed for the better.

Babies can help us refine our dreams. They can help show us what’s truly important. They can show us that the fame and success we desired was misplaced or selfish. They can show us that people mean more than things. They can show us we aren’t here on Earth for ourselves, we’re here for others. They can show us that sex is more profound and meaningful than casual encounters. They can show us innocence and at the same time they can mirror our own weaknesses or test the limits of our charity.

I thought I was a pretty selfless person before kids. However, my children have shown me I have a long way to go in actually being a patient and charitable person.

Babies show us what really matters in life. They help us to dream bigger and better dreams than the world gives us.

Andrea Tardiff and her daughter