Stay-at-home Mom...a spiritually respected position that no longer holds such valor in modern-day society. I have heard many reasons for choosing another profession over the years. Things such as, I am a better mother because I work outside the home, I would go stir-crazy being home all of the time, my kids would drive me insane if I were around them all of the time, and the extremely valid reason that a couple simply cannot afford to have the mother quit her current profession to stay at home. While all of these reasons hold merit to each woman who expresses them and to my understanding of each woman reading this blog, my goal is to share God's desire for the stay-at-home Mom through his unfailing Word and the spiritual awakening He has stirred in my soul. I have a passionate desire to open the eyes of mothers everywhere to an adventure that could potentially be your best ever...for you, for your children, AND for your marriages.
There will be no judgement here. God is in the business of changing hearts and lives. As children of God, we are simply his messengers. There was a time in my life where I thought all of the above things about the life of a homemaker. I simply did not even understand that word for many years...homemaker. I thought it was just the box you checked if you had kids and no job. Over the past year, the Lord has done a remarkable thing in my spirit. Not only did He open my eyes to the validity of the role of homemaker, but He has faithfully shown me, and continues to teach me daily, the ways to raise a Godly child and to keep a Godly home...in our modern world.
Like many Christians, I have begged God for years to give me my calling. You hear about people who knew from the time they were three that they would preach and teach. You hear about others coming to know the Lord after a painful history of abuse, and now they are watching people come to Christ right and left as they minister in homeless shelters. You hear about others doing missionary work their whole lives and being able to see thousands of men, women, and children develop personal relationships with God. I never felt like my story was that exciting. I had accepted Jesus into my heart when I was five years old. I had two extremely devoted parents who loved me and my little brother with every fiber of their being. Though raised in the church, my parents divorced when I was fourteen, thus then labeling me the product of a broken home. While a divorce is difficult enough for children who come from non-Christian backgrounds, I think it brings deep feelings of confusion and betrayal for children who know their parents love the Lord, they know their parents love them, yet they just can't seem to wholly love each other. Over the years, through counseling and the words of our Father, I have come to learn that divorce is no small event. I was hurt, I was angry, and I frantically looked everywhere for examples of strong Christian marriages that I could have one day. I dated all of the wrong men, participated in activities that were less than exemplary, and stayed a course that would definitely not birth the outcome of what I so desperately desired. Only by the grace of God did I find my way back to Him.
After finishing college in 2006 with my boyfriend, now my Godly husband who I dreamt of for many years, we moved to Colorado. I often say, jokingly, that God lives here. Honestly, God lives everywhere and in all of us who accept His Son, Jesus Christ, as blamelessly dying on the cross for us so that we may have eternal life with the One and only. But, there is just something about this state that screams His majesty! While living here and beginning my career in elementary music, I slowly allowed God to put me back together. And ever so faithfully, He did. I firmly believe that life is a series of times of Godly preparation followed by the exciting event, Godly preparation followed by the exciting event...over and over and over. As we mature, we can look back to those times of preparation and thank God for equipping us with the resources necessary to either tackle the next hurdle or to reap the benefit of a blessing from Him (both exciting events).
There is much more to my testimony, but I don't want this to be an emphasis on my life. I will close with this story. Three weeks ago, I was spending some time with the Lord, staring at His spectacular snow-topped mountains from a retreat home in Woodland Park, CO. As clearly as I could smell the pine trees and campfire embers from the night before, I heard the Lord say, "I have finished." Umm...ok? What does that mean? Am I breathing my last as I sit here? Is Jesus returning to the earth today? Then ever so sweetly, I heard Him (please know that I do not hear the Lord in audible words but in thoughts impressed upon my heart accompanied with deep emotion) explain that I have been in a very long season of preparation over the past fourteen years. I felt Him say that He has been teaching and training me to minister to other marriages and women by allowing me to go through the life experiences that were less than pleasant at times. At that moment, I knew. This was my calling. This was my passionate desire. To help other women find the spiritual desire to stay at home, learn the Godly principles and practices to make this a reality, and to then bless their husbands, their marriages, and their children by living out this highly esteemed profession.
Beth Moore beautifully speaks in her book So Long, Insecurity, "For many of us, God used painful experiences to birth our life passions. A fire burns in me to see women of all ages and colors freed and flourishing in Christ." Please join me on my journey of spiritual growth, daily how-tos on practical homemaking, and a revival of our marriages as we live out this calling on our lives...staying at home and making it work.
