I became a stay-at-home mom almost three years ago after working full-time with three small children still at home. Working outside the home and then coming home to care for my family was difficult, but I knew that being home full-time would be just as hard, if not harder. Still, I am very thankful that I get to stay home, even though it’s not an easy job! Being a mom is hard work, it’s not just fun trips to the zoo, park, museum, or library (though that is part of it), but it’s also doing the dishes twenty thousand times a day, folding multiple loads of laundry, packing lunches, wiping bottoms, and always putting someone else first.
When I struggle (as I often do), it helps to remember that all the things I do everyday are a blessing to my family and not just menial tasks. God called me to serve them daily and to work hard around my home. It blesses my husband when I have dinner ready when he comes home, and it blesses my children when I do the laundry so that they have clean clothes to wear. Titus 2:4-5 says “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.” I need to set an example for my children, so that they can see the love that I have for them in the ways that I serve them.
Acts 20:35 says “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” By giving all that I have to my family and serving others in my church family, I can show my kids what it is like to love and serve the Lord. My mission in life should be to raise up my children to love, fear, and serve the Lord. In order to do this, I need to keep up with our daily devotions and prayer time, but I also need to show them how I serve others. I can be really good at talking (and most certainly losing my kids’ attention), but actions speak louder than words.
Love,
Emily
