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
