Critical Care Surgeon to Full Time Mother

Kathryn Butler was a trauma and critical care surgeon. She saved lives and worked long days. In today’s world, this is way more acclaimed and rewarded than any mother at home ever could be. After all, a mother at home is only raising children and that has low priority on the totem pole in today’s fast driven culture. Feminists cheer for Kathryn and society rejoices that yet another woman has broken the glass ceiling and can have it all. Yahoo! However, she had a baby who almost died and immediately understood the depth of love a mother has for her child; “he tore the floodgates to my heart wide open.”

She continued to work long hours since this is what mothers do today. She had another baby not long afterwards, returned to working long, grueling hours but soon realized that after missing her children’s first smile, step, and word, she knew it was time to resign and go home for good when she understood that she was the one needed to be home with her children, not her husband. “The harried days, the teaching, and the hours in the operating room, once so important, paled in comparison with my call to shepherd the children with whom God entrusted me. When my daughter, not yet nine months old, burst into tears as I lifted my backpack to leave for an out-of-state conference, the Lord drove the point home.”

She wrote, “Cradled in sin, we are born with a proclivity to pursue things that glorify ourselves, rather than those that glorify God.” It would be difficult to use mothering as a way to glorify ourselves since it has no awards, praise, recognitions or achievements from the world. Many today make it appear like it is the worst thing in the world for a woman to choose to do. This is why we must have the mindset when being a mother that we are giving up our sleep, sacrificing our bodies, time and talents for precious human beings. We are doing it to glorify God, since He is the One who asks us to have children, be keepers at home and be content while doing them. Don’t worry about having a name for yourself or making money to prove you are of value, mother. Contrary to what culture tells us, “You are not wasting your life being a mother!” Nothing that God calls women to do is a waste of a life, but you must take the feminist mindset that you have probably been raised with and exchange it for the Lord’s mindset and what He values. He values humility and humble service, not looking for worldly praise.

“Oh, but don’t you need a career to fall back on when your children are all grown?” Many have asked me this question whenever I write about women being wives, mothers, and keepers at home. Kathryn’s response to this was outstanding, “The premise rests on an understanding of personal satisfaction as the chief aim in life. For such well-meaning friends, hope depends on identity through accomplishment.” When children are grown up and gone, women today are pressured to go and finally “do something for you!” If you don’t need the money, how about doing something for the Lord, like teaching younger women, as the Lord asks us to do? Younger women are in desperate need for older women to come alongside them and help them in the ways of being a wife and mother. Do you know what a huge impact this would have on the Church and for the cause of Christ?

Young mother, never feel badly for being home with your children, not earning any money, and not having the world’s approval. You have the Lord’s approval and His is all that matters. You are storing your treasures in heaven.

I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.

1 Timothy 5:14