“So, what do you do?”
There was a period of time where I hated answering that question. Not that it was an intrusive or inappropriate question, but that I felt my answer was insignificant and inadequate. My answer was “I’m just a mom.”
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love being a mom. And leaving my job to be a stay-at-home mom for a season was absolutely the right choice for my family. I have no regrets on that front. But, I have battled with seeing the significance of what I do in that role, what I contribute. Because in my eyes, it can seem ordinary. Yes, I kept tiny humans alive, but when I say it out loud, it doesn’t seem like a monumental achievement. (Although some days, it really is!)
just a mom
But something that has changed the way I think about what I do as a mom is what Mandy Arioto, the president and CEO of MOPS International, talked about a few years ago at MOMCON, the MOPS International conference. She said, “A mom can change the future by living her everyday life.” And so, I’ve been thinking about that often for the past couple of years.
Because I know that in the middle of the diaper changing, the 2 AM feedings, the mountains of laundry, the hangry whines, the teething drool, the lunch packing, the book reading, the boo-boo kissing, (I could go on for a while here) it can sometimes be hard to think that the things we do as moms have actual significance in the world. Sometimes it just feels like the days are all the same, and that what I’m doing isn’t really that important.
a simple lunch
I’ve kept praying over this, and asking God to help me see how my mothering has purpose and significance in this stage of my life. Through all of this, I’m reminded of another mama in John 6. I like to think that it was an unnamed, unmentioned mama that packed her boy a lunch.
It was a simple lunch, but enough for him. Some barley loaves, a couple of small fish. Because like any mama, she wanted to make sure her son wouldn’t be hungry as he went to go listen and to learn. Pretty sure that mama had no idea that her simple everyday act of packing a lunch and sending it with her son would feed 5,000 men, plus women and children, plus LEFTOVERS when surrendered to the hands of Jesus.
living her everyday life
A mom can change the future by living her everyday life. Especially when she surrenders those everyday moments in her everyday life to the God of the universe.
So, fellow mamas, all of those little things you do are seen.
They are valued.
They are being used by God to do things far greater than what we can ask or imagine.
Ephesians 3:20 and 21 say “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (NIV)
© 2018 Sara R Conley