Thank you for joining us! You can find Day 1 here.
When I was young, my mother read stories. She read stories at naptime and stories at bedtime and stories any time she didn’t know what else to do. She filled hours and hours of rainy days with books. Together, we looked in the windows of a little house in the middle of big woods, chased a very fat rabbit through an English garden, and hoped to anything that a spider could find a way to save a pig.
Sometimes she read missionary biographies, and our living room became the densest of jungles. We held our breath through cannibal country and the dangerous back-allies of the Orient. We watched the Moravian missionaries seal their belongings into caskets and send them off to Africa, where they would surely die.
It was fabulously romantic and terribly heroic to a seven-year-old with an overactive imagination and a particular aptitude for martyrdom. I could take up a cross like that and carry it to glory.
But it is God who orders the sacrifice, and it is God who cuts the cross. To my surprise, I was not made for being a martyr, but a mother.
The sacrifices of motherhood are not glorious like I desired. They rarely draw the attention of the crowd. Motherhood carries the simple, ordinary cross of ordinary days. It is the cross of daily self-denial in the mundane circumstances when no one is watching.
It is not particularly notable, and hardly ever acknowledged. It is lonely and monotonous and altogether mindless, sometimes.
And that’s the rub. It is all so ordinary. The dailyness of this cross cuts against my flesh. I have other gifts to offer, other talents to showcase, but here I am, doing nothing more than making lunches and wiping noses day after day after day. That’s hardly the stuff that changes the world, I think.
I begin to feel a bit like Cain, who found the sacrifices of God to be unbearable, not because he could not give them, but because he could not give what he wanted. He was a man with a garden, but the sacrifice was meat. That kind of sacrifice didn’t make him look good at all. It didn’t showcase his natural talents or abilities. It was the standard one-size-fits all model, and he wanted a custom fit.
Dissatisfaction settles in where pride has left an open door. It settled in to Cain, and human blood was spilled onto trembling earth. Some days, it settles in to me, and I begin to feel the hardship of my position under a cross that isn’t glorious at all. Pride tells me I am losing my life—my self—for nothing.
That is a lie that keeps me crippled under the weight of a burden that is supposed to be easy. It is a lie that steals the joy of motherhood and the joy of giving to God the very thing He has asked of me.
In those moments, when I am feeling so small, so devoid of anything good to give to God, I must embrace the words of truth. There is no greater love than this, than to lay down my life for another. To give my life for my children is the most profound and powerful way I can serve Him. It is the simplest and most irrefutable way I can proclaim Him. Motherhood is the gospel in action.
When I embrace the dailyness of motherhood, I am embracing the daily giving of one life for another. It is a picture of the gospel that all the world longs to see. It is a sacrifice that touches the hearts of my children and secures a godly remnant for a future generation. And that is just the thing that can change the world.
If my seven-year-old self could see me now, she might be disappointed, at first. But the beauty of the cross is this: when I give God the sacrifices He desires in the way He requires, I find joy. It is awfully daily, awfully ordinary, and far more glorious than anything I could have imagined.
Please join us tomorrow for Day 5: Forgiveness
For further thought
1) Read Psalm 51:17. What are the sacrifices God requires of you?
2) Micah 6:8 is a well-known passage. Think about it in light of motherhood. How can you please God in your daily calling?
3) Do you sometimes feel like Cain? What are the sacrifices you would like to bring to God? Consider this in against the writing of the apostle Paul, who had reason to boast about his sacrifices for God. What brought Paul the greatest joy in serving God (see Philippians 3:7-11). How does Paul’s perspective change the way you view the mundane aspects of parenting?
The funny thing for me is when I finally have those days where I just HAVE to get away & get out in the world, all I end up wanting is to be home with my babies.
Isn’t that the truth!
Another amazing post.. and love the picture of you and your little one. Precious. Why do we (I) long for what the world has to offer?
“Motherhood carries the simple, ordinary cross of ordinary days. It is the cross of daily self-denial in the mundane circumstances when no one is watching.”
wow! How many times have I told myself thise. The old adage ‘Pride goeth before the fall’ is so applicable here!
There is no greater hope in what one does with this God given life than in the fact that the gospel is proclaimed through it. Thank you, Kristy. 🙂
Thank you for sharing this, Krisitie! I have felt that way many times and need this reminder.
This is wonderfully revealed to you and well written by you. I struggle so much with the same feelings.
Our eldest children are now grown and have left home. The ‘sacrifices’ of those early years were so worth it as they have grown into beautiful young adults and by God’s grace all know and love Him. When I had a bunch of little kids I longed to be able to get out and do exciting things like my husband did. But I slowly came to accept that my ministry was to provide a stable home life so that my husband could have an outside ministry, and as the kids got older we also got to do the fun things too. For me doing the dishes and the laundry was a sacrifice. Reading to them was fun and is something that I still do with our youngest son.
Now with the benefit of hindsight I see my home ministry is now being multiplied as the kids all are launching into ministry themselves. The Lord is good because there are too many things I could have done so much better with a better attitude, and yet he has blessed us anyhow!
WOW! Heavy duty. One of the best. This line will stay with me forever. I have experienced it and know it to be true…”But it is God who orders the sacrifice, and it is God who cuts the cross”
“OH! If good mothers could only know how much they are doing for their children by their patient, longsuffering, gentle ways with them and how sure these children are to see and feel this by and by, the saddest of them would be less sad and more hopeful, while toiling and enduring so faithfully, with perhaps apparently so slight in return.” by H. Clay Trumbull Hints on Child Training
Pride tells me I am losing my life—my self—for nothing.
That is a lie that keeps me crippled under the weight of a burden that is supposed to be easy. It is a lie that steals the joy of motherhood and the joy of giving to God the very thing He has asked of me.
YES.
This, and only this, and entirely THIS, what is in front of me is what he has asked of me.
And He equips me for this sacrifice, not that other one.
And He blesses me right here, too.
Great post, again.
Emily
http://www.weakandloved.com
This reminds me a little bit of what we read last night (yes, I’m still reading aloud, now it’s to Ron during devotions!) in Oswald Chambers’ book “My Utmost for His Highest”. He was talking about not picking our place of martyrdom but allowing Him to use us where He wants to. And as a mother, there are definitely days where you feel like a martyr and you wish you were anywhere other than where you are, doing something grand and glorious. But in God’s eyes what you are doing IS grand and glorious and pays the biggest dividend in the end. And in the end, I think your seven-year-old self would be pretty pleased at the mom you’ve become. 🙂 I know that I am!
Well written……… I believe motherhood (parenthood) is the most important job on earth. As a mother you nuture the future, teach love and belief in god through word and by example. When I was teaching school fulltime, we (teachers) often heard from parents and others that we shouldn’t teach values and morals. Well, I am sorry but how does one not teach children and/or others without teaching values and morals… just being there with them everyday is going to be teaching them about my values and beliefs by my just being me. A teacher as a parent has tremendous influence on those they teach just by touching their lives. Yes, parents like teachers make many sacrifices every day in many ways. And yes, it isn’t very glamorus and even noticed most of the time. When you look back and watch the ones you have touched… you will see the good that comes from your committment and sacrifice (if you want to call it that) ‘nough preaching form me today 🙂
I love the pictures!!!! You are an awesome writer as well !!!