Is this what I will be doing for the rest of my life? Is this all there is to motherhood? Two questions every stay at home mother has asked herself at some point in time. I am blessed to have a wonderful godly husband who graciously reminds me how important my role/call is.

When you are almost 8 months pregnant & spend your days wrangling 3 very active toddlers along with the responsibility of maintaining a home that doesn’t look like toys r us ( and 8 loads of laundry) puked in your living room, the thought seems inevitable.

When you believe all your do is cook, change diapers, clean, organize, wipe food off little faces, entertain, etc every single day it becomes very difficult to navigate through those feelings and step back to capture the big picture. These are all small things. They may not seem small at the moment especially when our entire existence revolves around the needs of those God has entrusted to us. But trust me when I say the house work we do everyday does not even begin to define motherhood as a whole.

What then? What is motherhood about? What is the purpose of motherhood?
Allow me to suggest to you that motherhood is a holy calling. Mary, the mother of the Savior was given the greatest role of influence a woman can be entrusted with; nurturing a precious life into adulthood. Teaching them to transfer their dependency from you to their Savior.

In order to understand motherhood from a biblical perspective, we first need to understand what it was designed to accomplish. God blesses us with children that we may raise godly offspring for His glory. That is the entire purpose/ mission of motherhood.

The mundane everyday challenges and activities sure have a way of choking the truth and shifting our focus from the eternal to the temporal. As mothers our call is so enormous, we simply can not afford to be in the word renewing our minds daily. We can not afford not to draw near to God because only He can equip us to be the mothers He has called to be. Or mission will suffer significantly if we claim self sufficiency.

There is no greater call than to raise the next generation, a generation sold out to Christ. A generation that is so radically contrary to this world people will clearly see Christ in and through them. No words needed. Their lives may be the only bible some people may ever read. 🙂
We accomplish this by example. Our children are constantly watching us. What message are we sending them? Is it, I am doing this because I’m supposed to but I’m not content in my role/ call? Do you send the message that there are a million things way more important you can be spending your time, creativity, resources, talents by your lack of patience? Do they honestly think they are a gift from God to be cherished by your loving/ joyful demeanor? After all you are their main instructor on all things “life”.

Sweet friends if this isn’t our heart attitude we need to go back to understanding biblical motherhood. The amazing responsibility God places in the mother to train/ raise these precious little ones to love and honor God and to equip them to embrace the call and purpose God has for their lives.

Motherhood isn’t about dishes, laundry, diapers, dinners and endless arts and crafts projects. It is about us being content right where we are because this is the season in life God has decreed for us. Embrace it instead of trying to hurry through it. Be present instead of wishing the time will pass quickly because the you will be able to enjoy the next season much more. This is a lie. A lie designed to rob mothers of the present time and wonderful memories that could be created.

Wishing you were in a different season in life, wanting more than God decided you need, being mentally absent from precious moments that could be used as teaching moments is how the enemy robs us from the true joy of mothering on purpose.

The same lie that Eve bought into in the garden, we are buying into today. God is holding out on us by calling us to give up everything we think we want to pursue for everything He has designed us to accomplish. We believed the lie that we will be fulfilled by doing something with “real” significance because we first bought the lie that motherhood is just about dishes, laundry and mundane housework. The lie that only women who couldn’t do any better become homemakers ( more like life coaches to a handful of little people).

It is time to replace that lie with the truth.

Motherhood is a high and holy calling that is you choose to embrace with the right heart attitude will impact many generations to come…all for the glory of God.

When women as a society started to believe the lie during the feminist movement, and decided to go venture into the world to find self fulfillment the very fabric of the family in this country was torn. Now the lie about the purpose of motherhood is creeping into our churches. More professing christian mothers are dropping their little ones at a day care facility in order to pursue their “dreams” and in hope of finding some self fulfillment or purpose. Little do they know that is a never ending road, simply unattainable because God designed a mother to embrace motherhood and train/ disciple the next generation.

The call was to die to self. As we do this daily as serve our families as unto the Lord, He will bless us with joy abundantly and fulfillment…knowing we are making a huge impact for the kingdom because motherhood is kingdom work!

“There is no doubt about what a woman’s role is, there’s no doubt what a man’s role is. What has God designed for a woman? Verse 4, “To love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands that the Word of God may not be dishonored.” That’s very clear.
You can get in a lot of trouble by suggesting that kind of stuff. Try standing up in this culture and saying, “Women, you’re commanded to love your husband and to love your children and to work at home and to be subject to your husband.” You’ll get screamed down. I mean, you can be in deep trouble just reading that let alone commenting on it.” John MacArthur

“She is to be a home keeper, that’s the sphere of her responsibility, that’s her place of employment, that’s where she should pour her life. For a mother to get a job outside the home and send the children to some kind of daycare place is to shirk her God-given responsibility. It also is failure to understand that her husband is to be the provider, as Ephesians 5 makes very clear. Even if you wanted to work outside the home to pay for your children to go to a Christian school, you made a big mistake. Better that you should stay in the home and raise your own children to be godly then to pass it on to somebody else.” John MacArthur

Further suggested reading:

The Guilt Trip of Motherhood.

https://lightnercrew.com/2013/05/08/the-guilt-trip-of-motherhood-guilt-free-zone/

A Stay at home mom’s identity crisis.

https://lightnercrew.com/2011/11/20/a-stay-at-home-moms-identity-crisis/