This post is for mothers. Mothers, I want to encourage you. Though I do not want to elevate the role of motherhood to the highest ultimate good a woman can do (I don’t believe that’s true), I also personally know the tendency to lose sight of what we’re doing and why we are doing it, particularly if you have younger kids at home. If you have a few minutes, read on. I wish this could be a conversation together with a cozy warm beverage and a quiet, calm atmosphere. Let’s work with what we have! Pull up a chair and possibly a baby, tell the kids not to destroy the house or each other, and let’s talk 🙂

As some of you may know, I’m a stay-at-home mom. There are days when I am rejoicing in that role, and days when I question why I ever wanted to have and homeschool four children. If you could take a peek into our home, one day you might see me eagerly helping little people learn how to clean up after themselves and how to apologize after hurting someone…..then the very next day you might see me yelling in frustration at the same children because they are children and happened to spill the milk. Again. Specifically after I told them not to. Most assuredly, I am a flawed parent and a work in progress! Yet, in the rare quiet moments, when I take a step back from the busy work and consider my role in light of what’s important in this short life, I am honored and humbled to be called to such a valuable, desperately needed, hugely impactful role of raising children.

Walking through a store the other day, I noticed a sign with a quote from Mother Teresa. It said, “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”

Do I exaggerate? Does Mother Teresa? Is motherhood really that important? Today, for example, I heard a small, nagging voice, insisting that what I was doing by staying home with my kids was not worth my time.” It is not worth the investment of your time and energy”, says the nagging voice. “No one is noticing what you are doing. Who knows how many diapers you’ve changed? This is what your college education is going toward? By the time you’re finished with homeschooling these four kids, your youth will be gone. You should not spend the best years of your life on these kids, who aren’t even grateful for the sacrifices you’re making. Wouldn’t it be better for the world if you put your time and energy and gifts toward bigger and better things? Particularly visible things, where you get some verbal feedback and praise and notice for what you’re doing? See how much effort you put in and how no one notices, or even cares? That’s not life, my friend. Hire someone else to change the diapers and clean the kitchen for the 100,000,000th time, and get on to the really important things of life before it’s too late.”

Deep down, I know the nagging voice is lying. It’s not true. Deep down, I have great assurance from God that this role he’s given me is worth it. These young ones are going to grow up, God willing, and they need someone not just to provide for their physical needs, but to actually raise them. I get to teach them what is good and right and true and beautiful. I get to teach them how to love other people, particularly those who are different from them. I get to teach them how to learn, and how amazing it is to always be learning. They get to see me struggle, so they understand it’s normal to make mistakes and not be perfect the first time you try something new. I get to hug them, read to them, be a consistent presence to them (which is a hugely valuable gift and one they may not be able to verbalize to me until well into their adult years). I get to behold the beauty and majesty of God, and invite my children to behold Him, too. I get to bask in His beauty, and show it to them again and again. I get to teach them God’s words while they’re young. I get to show them what it looks like to depend on Jesus for my daily bread over and over (and over!) again. I get to model repentance so they understand what living in dependence on the good news of Jesus looks like. Again, when I stop to remember what God says, not the nagging voice, I see afresh that this calling of motherhood is so worth it.

As an added bonus, not only is motherhood a blessing to my kids, it’s a blessing to me! How I have been shaped and molded and tried and purified in the fires of mothering! Praise God! That’s a whole other blog post.

Mothers, parents. Listen to your Creator. Take hold of those nagging thoughts, lies, temptations, and evil whispers and douse them in the truth. When the family breaks down, society breaks down. Healthy families are one of God’s gifts of grace to the world, whether the world recognizes it or not. The call of parenting is an honorable, world-changing one. Like the sermon series our church has been going through, entitled “Upside Down Kingdom”, the ways of God and the means by which he works are often upside down from what the world thinks and values. World may say what that nagging voice tells me. “If you want to change the world, get out there and do it.” A smaller, insistent, more enduring whisper tells me what Mother Teresa says. “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”

You have been appointed by God as your child/ren’s parent. Though we need to raise our kids in a community, and we all need reinforcements, there is no replacement for you. Remember what a high and holy calling motherhood is. Teach them what is good and right and true and beautiful. Teach them how to love other people, particularly those who are different from them. Teach them how to learn, and how amazing it is to always be learning. Let them see you struggle, so they understand it’s normal to make mistakes and not be perfect the first time you try something new. Hug them, read to them, be a consistent presence to them. Behold the beauty and majesty of God, and invite your children to behold Him, too. Bask in His beauty, and show it to them again and again. Memorize His words, and teach them to your children. Let them see what it looks like to depend on Jesus for your daily bread over and over (and over!) again. Model repentance so they understand how Mommy needs a Savior just as much as they do. I will never be able to do justice in my meager words to all that a mother is and does. But there is One who keeps an account, and He knows. He will reward you one day for what you have done.

Perhaps you are not a mother, but you may relate to work that appears thankless or invisible. If you are one whose daily work or calling appears menial, less important or not as valuable, to anyone whose work is not verbally recognized, rewarded, acknowledged, appreciated, or even seen by another, I want to tell you something. Your work is not hidden. What is done in secret will be known one day. One day, the upside down kingdom of God will burst through all of the dim windows through which we currently view life, and true reality will dawn upon all mankind. It will all become clear. The upside down kingdom will seem upside down no more. It will be the ultimate reality. God’s ways is what we will ALL finally understand as right and good and holy. Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And those who have imperfectly but consistently held to God’s ways because He is their treasure will experience great reward. Though no one else sees, God sees you. He is watching. He is keeping an account. He will reward you. Keep on! Do not grow weary of doing good! Galatians 6:9 tells us that we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up. Whatever your unseen role is, do not give up. The same God who made you has died for you, risen for you, and given you His Spirit to empower you and equip you for your work. He is your vine; you are the branch. Abide in Him. And remember, the next time you’re changing a dirty diaper (again), He sees. He sees you. Keep going. A harvest is coming, if we do not give up.

Hebrews 12:1-2

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Luke 12:1-3

In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.”