Do you ever wonder if you’re using your time well? Not in an hourly, time management sense, but in a big picture sense? Do you ever wonder if your time at home is worthwhile?
I know young women who have big dreams of changing the world, and then they marry, have children, and find themselves surrounded by domesticity. They freely choose to stay at home and serve first there. But at the same time, they look at the drastic needs of the world and wonder if they’re doing what they should.
Perhaps instead of important business meetings and global travel, your main concerns are getting through today’s math lesson and laundry while also buying groceries and a birthday gift for the party tomorrow.
The Ministry of the Mundane but Worthwhile
Maybe you feel like your all-consuming tasks aren’t very important …
But have you ever considered how Jesus spent 90% of his life? We don’t know much about his life before he was 30. Yet we assume Jesus spent those years at home, serving his family. As a young man we think he worked as a carpenter in Nazareth, caring for his mother and siblings. He only spent three years in public ministry.
I believe Jesus brought as much glory to his Father in his years at home as he did in his public ministry. Why? Because he was following the Father the entire time. He was home when his Father wanted him home. And then he preached and healed and trained disciples when that’s what the Father wanted him to do.
Jesus listened to his Father, walked in step with him, and served where the Father had him. It was that simple and that difficult.
This Season of Time at Home
Your life, too, will have different seasons to it. This season at home with your children while homeschooling is just one of them. I encourage you to do it well and to seek God’s face the entire time.
It’s true that God may ask you to focus on something in addition to your family and homeschooling right now. God may be asking you to homeschool and do something else too:
- start a business
- lead a non-profit
- volunteer at church
- go back to school
- pursue an additional vocation
I started Sonlight with my husband while I was homeschooling. I worked very hard all those years to give my best to all my commitments.
But that’s something you need to discern. I want you to hear, Mom, that staying at home with your children is a high and very worthy calling. Whether that’s your sole focus now, whether you serve elsewhere as well, or whether you even decide one day to stop staying at home with the kids, you will not regret these years of letting motherhood shape and change you. The patience, logistical skills, big-heartedness, grace and love you develop in these years will serve you and the world for the rest of your life.
Your Job at Home Matters
And don’t forget, you are raising the next generation. You are equipping your children to know who they are in Christ, to know what they can do in the world, and to have the skills to go out to do it. You are equipping your children to do whatever God calls them to. Talk about a critical job!
The reality is that this season of intense motherhood is where God has you right now. I know it is beautiful and awesome, and sometimes frustrating and overwhelming. Yet it is always important.
So thank you for serving your children, and in so doing, serving the world. In seasons where you are also serving elsewhere, thank you for that. In seasons when your family life demands all your attention, thank you for your faithfulness to them.
