31 Days of Family Life: Calling
Family has always been important to me. I remember as a child wanting to be a mother. I knew I'd marry and have children; you could say I felt it was my calling from a very young age. I loved children, babysat often, and sought out kids in every setting. Now as a mother/grandmother, I still believe mothering to be a divine calling. However, not every woman is content to mother. Many other occupations and endeavors are calling for a woman's time and attention. Society can cause a mother to doubt the importance of the call to motherhood. Mothering is difficult and demanding. It asks a woman to put the needs and desires of another first over and over again. A woman can get lost mothering. I know I did. When the calling of motherhood seemed more like a call to suffer trials and persevere through heartache I felt myself slipping- but I found: Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." And I claimed that verse, not only for myself, but for my children.
Family has always been important to me. I remember as a child wanting to be a mother. I knew I'd marry and have children; you could say I felt it was my calling from a very young age. I loved children, babysat often, and sought out kids in every setting. Now as a mother/grandmother, I still believe mothering to be a divine calling. However, not every woman is content to mother. Many other occupations and endeavors are calling for a woman's time and attention. Society can cause a mother to doubt the importance of the call to motherhood. Mothering is difficult and demanding. It asks a woman to put the needs and desires of another first over and over again. A woman can get lost mothering. I know I did. When the calling of motherhood seemed more like a call to suffer trials and persevere through heartache I felt myself slipping- but I found: Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." And I claimed that verse, not only for myself, but for my children.
Now as a grandmother, once again mothering the grandchild, I can become discouraged as I see my peers free to indulge themselves in life. Their Grand-parenting is limited to a day here or there, piling on the fun stuff, while I'm once again called to the role of parent. I don't send the child home after spoiling her, I am the parent. I'm not called in as support staff, I am the full-time 24 hour staff. I get tired, lose patience, feel selfish in my desire for quiet, and time to pursue. . . What? Something of little Kingdom value? Indulgence in earthly things? Over and over I struggle with this, yet I know the eternal value of this little life I have been entrusted with and I realize my life is His and not my own. After all, I am called to give glory to God, " Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them." (Isaiah 47:7, NLT) and I am called to eternal glory in Christ,
"And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace,
who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore,
confirm, strengthen, and establish you." (1 Peter 5:10, ESV) What can be better than to be called to glorify God with our life and be called to glory for eternity in Christ Jesus? Nothing. Yet it isn't always easy to fulfill His call. It will stretch us, purify us, burn out the dross that tarnishes the hidden corners within us, and although we are all given a choice to follow His call on our life (that thing called free will) one can be sure the call is immutable. "For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." (Romans 11:29, ESV) We can deny Him or ". . .We can walk in a manner
worthy of the calling to which we (sic) have been called, with all humility
and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager
to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:1-3, ESV)
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