Preface: This post is based on my experience as a stay-at-home mother. Having also spent time as a mom who works outside the home, I realize that each lifestyle presents its own set of unique challenges. Whatever your current circumstances, I hope through this post you will gain a new perspective on the role of a stay-at-home-mom.
Many of you are sending your children back into the classrooms as the new school year begins. Although I’m past that season of life, I still remember with fondness the first day of school excitement at the breakfast table. The new outfits, fresh haircuts, backpacks full of supplies.
I loved taking pictures of my kids in front of their school or with their new teachers. Maybe you take pictures of your kids with a sign saying what grade they’re going into (that seems to be popular these days).
Whatever your “first day” traditions are, after everyone is gone and the dust settles, you may find yourself enjoying the newfound quiet at home.
If you are fortunate enough to be a stay-at-home mom, you will miss your little sweeties while they are filling their brains with knowledge, but you will no doubt appreciate the “extra” time you have on your hands. “What extra time?” you ask. You’ll be doing the same daily chores, running the same weekly errands, planning meals or schedules or any of the other mundane responsibilities that fall to you.
You may begin to think that you should go (back) to work so you can feel like you’re really accomplishing something. During the ten years I was home with my kids, that thought crossed my mind a time or two. Current culture seems to value the “working” mom more than the mom who devotes her time to her children and her husband.
I believe that a mom who has the option to stay home and intentionally pour into her children the “training and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4) is especially pleasing to God. It is the most important job that any of us will ever have!
CONTINUE ON
by Roy Lessin
A woman once fretted over the usefulness of her life. She feared she was wasting her potential being a devoted wife and mother. She wondered if the time and energy she invested in her husband and children would make a difference. At times she got discouraged because so much of what she did seemed to go unnoticed and unappreciated.
“Is it worth it” She often wondered.
“Is there something better that I could be doing with my time?”
It was during one of these moments of questioning that she heard the still small voice of her heavenly Father speak to her heart.
“You are a wife and mother because that is what I have called you to be.”
Much of what you do is hidden from the public eye. ” But I notice.”
Most of what you give is done without remuneration. “But I am your reward.”
Your husband cannot be the man I have called him to be without your support. Your influence upon him is greater than you think and more powerful than you will ever know. I bless him through your service and honor him through your love.
Your children are precious to me…even more precious than they are to you. I have entrusted them to your care to raise for me. What you invest in them is an offering to me.
You may never be in the public spotlight, But your obedience shines as a bright light before me. Continue on. Remember you are MY Servant. Do all to please me.
These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God. Titus 2:4-5
