This statement appears on a mug I was given, and it still makes me laugh. Do you ever have a day when it seems that someone yells “mom” every five minutes? I do. I realized one day that if each of my kids said “mom” just ten times a day for their first eighteen years, that’s almost 66,000 “mom” moments! If you multiply that number times the eight children the Lord has blessed us with, it’s a staggering 528,000 times I will have the opportunity to respond sweetly to my children!
Being a mom wasn’t at the top of my choice occupations list when I was twenty. I stepped into motherhood after years of guarding my manicures and separating my eyelashes with a straight pin before I appeared in public. I can identify with the moment in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy peeks through the door of her transported farmhouse and realizes she is in a beautiful but strange new world. Suddenly she is immersed in a life she has never experienced. There are some interesting applications to motherhood in this classic story.
• Most of what she encounters is unknown.
• She is surrounded by munchkins.
• Nothing around her is what she expected.
• Her journey gets more and more surprising.
• Her task is something she can’t do alone.
• Her companions sometimes appear to be brainless, heartless, or courageously challenged.
• There is an enemy who tries to keep her from accomplishing her task.
• There are moments when returning to Kansas sounds pretty good.
• When she needs it, someone wiser than she is always present.
If you answer to “mother” in any form, you have your own story. In the last thirty-two years, God has rewritten my heart desire and given me His perspective on the value of my job description. Motherhood is not just a life choice—it is a calling.
Jean Fleming in her wonderful book A Mother’s Heart elaborates on this …
Webster’s defines call as a "a divine vocation or strong inner prompting to a particular course of action." In every generation mothers must answer the call to be what no one else can be and to do what no one else can do for their children. It isn’t that mothers can’t do and be many other things, but if they refuse to accept their calling as mothers, some child ends up short-changed. The empty space that mother leaves echoes for generations.
Has God given you a mother’s heart? You may have biological children, foster children, adopted children, grandchildren you care for, or you’re waiting for the Lord to provide in this area. I just want to remind you that this job matters.
What you are giving your life to is worth it. Ultimately there is only one opinion that is indisputable—that of God Himself. God Almighty, who measures oceans in the palm of His hand, weighed the mountains in a balance, created the stars and calls them all by name, formed the dry land with His hands, who makes the clouds His chariot and the wind His messengers, has in sovereignty also created mothers (Isa. 40:12, 26; Ps. 95:5; Ps. 104:3–4).
The next time you hear the word “MOM,” celebrate your calling!
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