I've heard this question from many young moms throughout the years, and many years ago, I was the one asking it.
I worked full-time as an elementary school teacher, and as any teacher knows, it's hard, exhausting, rewarding work! But what I didn't realize then is that I had children at home to love, cherish, nurture, teach, and bring up in the instruction and admonition of the Lord.
Just a few months after having my firstborn, the night before I was to return to work, as my husband and I lay in the bed,, tears streamed down the side of my temples as I stared at the ceiling. I told my husband how I didn't want to go back, but I saw no other way, and neither did he. We would have had to sell our already 1200 sq foot tiny home to live in something more affordable, or so we thought. The next day, I took my baby to a sitter and went to work, caring and teaching a classroom full of little children. Two years later, after having our second born, I was becoming increasingly confused and unhappy with dropping my children at the sitter and teaching someone else's child. Day after day, I would drop off my children and Jim would pick them up. He would go home after a long day of work and start supper, the laundry, and play with our children. There were few around us championing me to go home.
But the Lord kept pressing into my heart that things were upside down, and I needed to be home. But self-made idols die hard. Teaching wasn't what I did, it's who I was. Teaching stood for everything I wanted: purpose, meaning, activity, creativity, love, and recognition. I was good at teaching, and the parents approved.
Fast forward to bringing our two youngest children home. They were babies, and we saw no other way for me to be home than for a miracle to happen or to sell our home. We decided that selling our home was the only way for me to be home, and we did. Again, it was not easy. It was the home built on the 10 acres we desired to raise our children on. But selling the home meant I could be home with all four children. It was a hard change for our family, but it was worth it. A million trillion times worth it.
When my oldest son was in 9th grade, he asked to homeschool, and then a year later, our oldest daughter asked to do the same. It was the Lord's redemption in many ways for the years lost. This is not to say that just because you work outside of the home, your relationships can’t flourish with your children. But for me, I had been pouring my whole being into being a teacher. I couldn’t do both well. Something had to change.
Our relationships grew, and those years are some of the best gifts the Lord has ever given me. Today we homeschool our two youngest children. Most days are hard days. But they're "worth it" days.
I know without a doubt that loving my husband and loving and teaching our children is a work worth doing and guess what, not even that is enough to satisfy the soul. It is not my identity. It is not WHO I am. I belong to the Lord. God is my Father and Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.
If you are a mom, you are doing an important work. In Ephesians, Paul writes and says that God has saved us and prepared good works for us to walk in. Motherhood is full of these works. May we walk in them. Christ is enough. Being in Christ is enough. Doing all things for God's glory is what He asks. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Proverbs 14:1 A wise woman builds her house, but the foolish tear it down with her own hands.
Proverbs 31:10 An excellent wife who can find? For her worth is far above jewels.
Proverbs 31:29-30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Titus 2:4 ...so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and love their children.
