Not For Me

I can understand why some may think that being "just" a mommy, wife, and keeper of the home can be very unsatisfying. My day is full of menial-type, repetitive tasks, that, for the most part, go unnoticed, and are often destroyed or disrupted very soon after completion. Going the entire day with only a crowd of 8 and under to talk to can feel mind-numbing at times, and the amount of work that these people create for me is overwhelming!

The enemy is full of lies, and he whispers them so subtly. "You're not making any difference here". "You blew it again, your kids will be scarred forever". "You call this serving the Lord? Don't you know serving Him involves a big ministry, sharing His name around the country, the world? What are you doing inside the walls of your home wasting your time?" "Things that you are struggling with will never change, it is a big pit of desperation you will never climb out of. Give up!"

But God's Word and Truth are so good... living waters, refreshing, pure milk that satisfies the soul. The thing is... my calling of being mommy... is not for my own glory. He has called me to it, not so that I can get personal satisfaction, glory, and praise... but so that HE can get personal satisfaction, glory and praise. So that He can show His strength, His mercy, His great love to me and the little flock growing here, and we can then reflect His faithfulness to others.

2 Timothy 1:9 has really spoken so much encouragement to me:

"...who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity..."

I am called for His purposes, not my own! After spending a night combating those subtle whispers of discouragement, I was blessed to wake up and read this in "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers:

"Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all." Philippians 2:17

Are you willing to be offered for the work of the faithful - to pour out your life blood as a libation on the sacrifice of the faith of others? Or do you say - "I am not going to be offered up just yet, I do not want God to choose my work. I want to choose the scenery of my own sacrifice; I want to have the right kind of people watching and saying, 'Well done.'

It is one thing to go on the lonely way with dignified heroism, but quite another thing if the line mapped out for you by God means being a door-mat under other people's feet. Suppose God wants to teach you to say, "I know how to be abased" - are you ready to be offered up like that? Are you ready to be not so much as a drop in a bucket - to be so hopelessly insignificant that you are never thought of again in connection with the life you served? Are you willing to spend and be spent; not seeking to be ministered unto, but to minister? Some saints cannot do menial work and remain saints because it is beneath their dignity.

It was such encouragement to me, and a helpful reminder of the focus of my work should not be on me, or even on how I feel about my purpose - but my work is for His purposes alone. Praise God!!