Perspective can be a difficult concept to grasp during the years at home raising young children. Days can seem long and lonely, while there’s simultaneously not enough time, and way too much noise!
Diapers and laundry rule the day, combined with meals and shopping, cleaning and tidying, running errands and doctor’s appointments. Mornings are early and hectic, and there’s many a late and sleepless night. School-aged children bring home assignments and notes, besides the cares and concerns of peer relationships. Some women accomplish these tasks, and also earn money to help with household expenses.
As a homeschool mom, the list of considerations to enumerate grows even longer. Are my children learning everything they’ll need to know? Am I having them write enough? Do they have enough interaction with other children? How much screen time is enough? Combine the worry with lessons plans to be written, homework to be checked, and quizzes and tests to be graded. The number of hours in the day are not enough to accomplish everything that needs to be done.
A woman who wants to honor the Lord with her life will doubtless also be looking for ways to serve others outside her home. And when the days slip by and it seems there just aren’t enough hours left to also accomplish what we perceive to be “God’s work”, it becomes easy to be discouraged, and feel like we’re somehow missing God’s calling on our lives.
So I return to the list of daily tasks we accomplish in our homes with our families. Do I view these responsibilities as necessary evils to be accomplished before I start my service for God? Do I wait out this time period until the littles are bigs and I have more time on my hands? Are some tasks physical and others spiritual?
I don’t believe that’s the case at all. Kingdom living is described by Jesus and the writers of the epistles in terms of every day life. Paul talks of relationships between husbands and wives, mothers and children, and coworkers. In Titus 2, working in the home is in a list of characteristics evidenced by God-honoring Christians who are zealous of good works. A Christian mother has the all-important role of transferring her knowledge of God to her children at home (I Tim. 2:15).
I can display Christ in the relationships and circumstances that God has placed me in right now, or I can languish away, waiting for some magical point when I “have time” to serve the Lord. One is kingdom living, and the other is nothing but fantasy. The precious lives currently in my care are no less important to the kingdom of God than the nations over the seas (Mt. 19:14). Am I faithful, here and now, in that which is least?
I am so thankful for the indwelling Spirit of God, who convicts me of my own pride and dissatisfaction of the mundane, and leads me in repentance to number my days, that I may apply my heart to wisdom.
When I start out a day with a to-do list several notebook pages long, and I cry out to God to help me prioritize my time…
When I breathe a request for wisdom from the Word as I intervene in another sibling conflict…
When I battle the never ending pile of laundry and dishes, and the stacks of papers to grade with a thankful heart for what my Provider has given me…
When I listen to the concerns of a frustrated or hurting child, and I point them to the understanding heart of our Great High Priest…
When I testify to my children of the power of the Spirit’s grace in battling sin…
When I see all these events as opportunities to live for Christ in His Kingdom…..
Then I know I have the right perspective.
Truth! And so beautifully and well said. Thanks for sharing! Still learning this.
Thank you very much Amy, your honesty and forthright approach to rearing your children is your reflection of the kingdom living you all aspire too. It is a wonderful thing to see the Lord working in you, and through your children as well.
Perspective is a great deal more complex than we make it out to be at time, is takes a great deal of work gaining the correct perspective, and but for the Grace of God, we could never even come close to the perspective that it is showing us. Thank you again, well said and timely written.