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Before I share my thoughts, I want to be mindful of friends who are not able to stay at home.
I recognize their desire to love & care for their kids but the need for them to work full time outside the home.
Currently staying at home to care for our kids is one of the most important roles God has given me.
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In many ways our society discourages and demeans the work of stay at home moms.
However God sees mothering at home as a prestigious and very important work and uses this time to develop the fruit of the Spirit in ourselves and our children.
Full-time mothering is a period of life where you must lay aside many of your desires to devote your whole self into raising the future generation.
It involves cooking, feeding, cleaning, playing, organizing, driving, disciplining, mentoring, laughing, crying, comforting, reminding and hopefully a little sleeping, every single day.
Salary.com estimates that stay at home moms are worth 113,000 dollars annually.
Mothering is not a charity cause, it’s kingdom work.
It does involve a lot of self-sacrificing and sanctification on our part but the job is simple and eternal.
Mothers get to partner with God to share His Truth & hope to the youngest generation all day long and all night.
We have been given the responsibility & pleasure to raise our children and live out the Gospel to them.
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Isn’t that wonderful news? I don’t have to be perfect. Christ died for the moms that mess up–BOTH the moms that stay at home and those that work.
The most important role as a mother is to recognize my sin and confess it, letting forgiveness and grace wash over me.
As I live out my faith and invite my kids in, they will witness what is essential in life.
Some exemplary mothers highlighted in the Bible provide us with clues on succeeding in such an intense task.
Hannah, who was accused of being drunk because of her fervent praying for a child became the mother of Samuel, one of the most influential priests to the Israelites.
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She prayed intentionally and intently.
Mary, the mother of Jesus was young and inexperienced yet God chose her to be the one to care for our Savior.
Luke 2:19 reads “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”
She took note of the details in her son’s life realizing it was of great worth.
Exodus 2:3 says, “When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and dabbed it with bitumen and pitch.
She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.”
Moses’ mother had to put her son up for adoption trusting God would care for her son.
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These three mothers provide me with a few key reminders.
1. Pray without ceasing.
2.Be involved in your children’s lives.
3. At all times we must trust in the Lord, as we will be called to sometimes sacrifice our desires for the love of our children.
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One of the most vivid times this truth came to life for me, was while I was washing dishes.
One of my sons asked me to read him a book.
I replied that I didn’t have time.
To which he quickly replied, “ Oh Mama, I have time. I’ll give you some of mine.”
That’s just what I needed to be refocused.
Quality time with my children is of greater worth than checking another item off my to-do list.
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Though I mess up more times than I care to remember, Romans 8:37-39 reminds me,
“No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.
Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
I think one of the greatest struggles stay at home moms deal with is loneliness.
Yes mothers are surrounded by children, but real Biblical community can be lacking in the homes for moms.
Titus 2:3-5 tells us “They [older women] are to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled,
pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”
We desperately need loving, gracious, experienced mothers to come along side and encourage us!
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We must continue to remind ourselves of God’s truth-our every day work is important, it’s kingdom work.
Let us not listen to our culture’s pressure to reduce our significant role in the world but uplift one another as the Bible says.
Every day presents new challenges, when to potty train your child, how to educate your children, what to say yes to and when to say no.
Our family has a lot of unknowns in our future.
We are planning to move to the Middle East, with the federal government financial problems and the sequestration,
my husband’s military career may end, we don’t know what tomorrow holds.
But we know who holds it.
So take heart moms,
“May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy,
giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” Colossians 1:11-12
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