There is a cross stitch hanging in our church nursery that I’ve read over and over. I’ve wondered and thought over it many times.
Some houses try to hide the fact
-unknown
that children shelter there;
Ours boasts it quite openly…
the signs are everywhere
For smears are on the windows,
Little smudges on the door;
I should apologize I guess
For toys strewn on the floor,
But I sat down with the children
And played and laughed and read
And if the doorbell doesn’t shine
Their eyes will shine instead
For when I’m forced to choose
The one job or the other
It’s good to be a housewife
But I’d rather be a mother!
The first thing I’ve wondered is do I have to choose? Or is the author just suggesting that some moments you have to choose one or the other? If that’s the case than I completely agree! There are some times when I have to drop everything to be a mother.
I also wonder whether choosing mom over housewife is choosing our children over our husbands? There has to be a balance here, and not every family will be the same.
Secondly, their description of a house boasting of children doesn’t seem too daunting compared with the reality I face everyday. I’d take hand prints on the windows over mold behind the toilet any day. As far as toys strewn on the floor, try, toys, clothes, books, and blankets and a variety of who-knows-whats strewn all over the floor!
If this poem is the standard for socially acceptable mess, then I have a problem.
Which I do. but that’s a post for another day.
The point is, how do we view our lives as a mom? Are our children the “distraction” hindering us from our “real” work?
My friend Annie, mom of 4, and 5 figure business owner, shared this in our mom group recently:
Wake up. Change diapers. Make breakfast. Make beds. Change diapers. Make lunch. Vacuum. Change diapers. Make dinner. Wash dishes.
Repeat for next several years.
Is what we doing as moms worthwhile through all these years? Will it have made a difference?
As hard as it might be to imagine, the seemingly inglorious tasks we turn our noses up at are an often overlooked form of worship. Many of us separate our lives into “secular” and “sacred.” Because we tend to see the chores that accompany child-rearing and housekeeping as purely secular, we fail to consider God’s presence and purpose in them. Instead, we often grudgingly rush through them so we’ll have time to get to our “Jesus time” activities, like church, Bible study or our own personal devotions.
But the acts of making meals, sorting the recycling and wiping your child’s runny nose are just as spiritual as other “religious” activities when done with the right attitude.
Never look “for the holiness of things but only the holiness in things.”
Ministry is about all of life and all of who we are. It has to do with moments of retreat and rush-hour traffic, with periods of silence and the noise of little children, with hushed Sunday worship and frantic family dinners. The promise of ‘God with us’ is not confined to the mountaintop.”
Nothing has changed except my attitude – the dishes are still there, the baby’s diaper still needs changing and the meal I slave over today will likely be forgotten by bedtime. But I’m a more contented and fulfilled person, and our home is infused with the joy and peace only a happy mother can bring.
See your children as ministry.
Not as the world sees them, for they see them as burdens.
— Annie Wiebe
Abundantly Blessed Mama 