Sneak Peek #14

Excerpt from THRIVE AND SURVIVE, ZERO TO FIVE

Though it’s true a mother’s work is never done, that shouldn’t be the banner superimposed over your calling as a mom. Knowing where you fit in the grand scheme of things can revolutionize every minute of every day. Mothering the specific children sent to you by God can then become one of life’s greatest pleasures . . . even when changing your thousandth diaper.

It’s easy to feel sorry for ourselves, especially when we’re stretched to the limit. And it doesn’t help that today’s mothers are not lifted up and encouraged by society as they were in generations past. Moms who forfeit careers to stay home with their children are especially snubbed, but they ought never to base their opinion of themselves on what the culture says.

Followers of Christ find their identity in Him, the One who doesn’t change through the generations. Every Christian mother ought to define her value as Scripture defines it, which is to take her worth from what the Lord says. After He made the first man and woman, His assessment of all He created went from good to very good (Genesis 1:31).

He’s made each of us—including you—with the same great care and ascribes the same great value to every one of us, since we’re all made in His image. He breathed an eternal soul into you, and by Christ’s death, has made a way to save that soul. He’s offered to live within you to guide, encourage, help, and affirm you as needed. In other words, He wants to be your God on a personal level, one-on-one. Knowing all this should give you the strong confidence that you are of great worth.

And there’s something else. He’s given you children to raise, specific work to do in specific ways, and He daily offers to equip you for the task. The Lord highly esteems children, which is why raising them is important work. Though today’s world might demean the role of mothering, God doesn’t ever want you to feel demeaned as you do it.

SIDEBAR:

SCRIPTURAL ENCOURAGEMENT FOR YOU: