After Mike and I were married, my parents were looking to sell their camper. They didn't use it much anymore and were tired of it sitting in the driveway. So Mike and I decided to buy it! I can't tell you how excited I was to get the camper! Now my kids were going to get to experience what I did as a kid! As I knew it, camping was GREAT FUN!!
I was so excited for our first trip!! We were going to have a great time! Well, it didn't take long for me to realize that camping was work! I remember getting home from our first trip and calling my mom. I was so curious to find out if she EVER had any FUN all those years that we went camping! I had no idea the sacrifices that she had made for us kids! She had to work really hard on EVERY camping trip that we took! Wow! That was a real eye opener for me. I had to suck it up and tell myself that it was now my turn to work hard for my children. (Not that camping isn't fun, it is! But it is also a lot of work for moms.) Now I had to learn to enjoy laying down my life for someone else....ahhhh MOTHERHOOD 101!! That reminds me of my favorite quote..."Motherhood is a journey out of self-centeredness. "
Motherhood = Ministry!
My family is my ministry! I have to look at it that way because serving them is what God has called me to do. I am to be a keeper at home (according to Titus 2:5). I cook, clean, do laundry, educate my children, go camping :), and a hundred other things...Why? Because it is my ministry! :) I don't always want to get up every morning and make my family a nice breakfast, but I do it, every day, because it is how I need to serve my family. (Romans12:1) A wife and mother has many opportunities to learn to enjoy hard work and servanthood! :) There are lots of scriptures that teach us that it is our duty before the Lord, and we must do it well. We can look to our own homes and families to find our calling in Christ.
The problem is that those mundane tasks that us mothers do over and over again, day after day, run the risk of becoming meaningless, without faith in God. And after years of doing the same things over again, we can grow weary and start wondering if there are other things we should be doing instead...other ministries. Am I missing out on something? Isn't there something more exciting that God wants me to do for Him? We need to trust that God has our best interests in mind when He tell us to be keepers at home; to serve our families.
Sometimes all we need is a little adjustment in our view of things. If we view our ministry to our families as drudgery, that is what it will be, but it becomes a joy and a delight when we are doing it for the Lord.
We need hearts that are committed to work...hard work! The Bible teaches that there is profit in ALL labor! And with the Lord's blessing on your work, you can trust that it WILL BE fruitful! Our labor is not in vain! (Col. 3: 23-24)
Our ministries may look a little different depending on our husbands occupation, how many children we have, and where we live, but no matter what, as wives and mothers, we can find the Lord's work within our own homes....and lots of it!! Let's keep encouraging one another to continue to fight the fight of faith, to not grow weary in well doing, to press on in a culture that looks down upon homemakers. Don't change with every wind of doctrine! Keep on pressin' on! :)
"Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates." Proverbs 31:30-31
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