Finding Joy in Your Calling as a Mom.

         

Romans 15:13
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

So as I looked at this picture of my boys it brings me great joy. How their personalities show through and how they are having fun! Then I got to thinking, "How can I apply this to my daily life?" We have many humorous moments in this house. It's impossible not to with five boys! (I really need to post more of the funny things that happen!) In fact, my boys are right now wrestling on the ottoman right in front of me.  And some days, most days even, I find joy in my calling of being a mother.

I knew from a very young age I wanted to be a mother. When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up my answer was usually mother. That was followed by, how many kids do you want? I remember starting with 10 and then it went down to 6. I ended up having five thus far. I haven't always had joy in my calling of being a homemaker to my hubby and my boys. I struggled. A lot. When I first became a mother I was young and had no clue what I was doing. I learned as I went and I thank God for protecting me and L from my mistakes! Then when I met J and we married I became a stay at home homemaker and mother right away. I had no clue what I was doing! I always felt like I was doing something wrong. I couldn't cook that well. And, well, I couldn't really clean either!

I grew up in a home where both parents worked most of the time. We rarely ate dinner together at the table and it was kind of a fend for yourself type of thing so I had never learned how to do any of this stuff! As the years went by, and as I dug into the word 1 Corinthians 10:31 really started to stick out at me.
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
Whoa! Whatever I do? That means, dishes, toilets, laundry, mothering my children, cleaning up dog doo, mopping, and, well, you get the point!

Now changes didn't happen overnight, but gradually. With God's help I began to be a better mother and wife and homemaker! It happened as I began to realize that what I was doing was for God as well as my family. Here's a little clip below that really spoke volumes to me about this. It's by Nicole Johnson and it's called "The Invisible Woman". It impacted me greatly and made me realize that when I'm most frustrated with what I call "mundane" and wonder if it matters at all, that it certainly does to God if no one else. (you can pause the music I have by scrolling all the way to the bottom and clicking on pause!)