Image credit: Stock photo via Stuart Miles at freedigitalphotos.net
In keeping with my theme of {FOCUS} for this year, I've been thinking a lot about what it means to really embrace the present--the present day, and the present time in life. Right now my season of life includes the vocations of wife, homemaker, and college student, among others. One vocation I do not have right now is motherhood.
I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to being a mama. The excitement of preparing for the birth of a child, wondering if it will be a boy or girl, whose features our child will have, what their personality will be like. The changes in our life that a child will bring--new jobs and responsibilities, a new person to love and care for. Seeing this living miracle that God made, in my body, a personification of his love for us in a tiny baby. Sure, there are things to be less excited about... the discomfort and pain of pregnancy and childbirth, learning how to nurture our marriage with the added challenge of having a baby.
But right now, none of these things is in our near future. We still have a couple years left before we're both done with school, and therefore, we'll need to wait to become parents.
As much as I'm looking forward to the future, it won't do to focus only on that right now. God has me in this place, in this season of life, for very good reason. He has a purpose for my life right now. He has work for me to do right where I am. Therefore, instead of spending all my time planning for and thinking about having a baby sometime in the future, I'm going to look for ways to serve God right here, right now.
Practically speaking, what does it mean to embrace each season of life as it comes?
-I embrace the roles God has given me. Right now, those are wife, homemaker, and college student. The roles of wife and homemaker will be mine for the rest of my life. Now is the time to work on those, gaining wisdom and experience, and nurturing my marriage as much as I can, so that it can stand strong through the changes and challenges that will inevitably come. After all, even after our future children grow up and leave home, I'll still be a wife--that's my first calling, and the most important.
-I look for ways to serve. I don't have to wait till my husband is officially a teacher and "in the ministry." We can start doing ministry right now! I have hopes and plans that I'm looking to implement this fall...I'll let you know when those plans are more concrete. At home, I can serve my husband, by taking care of our home and striving to be the best helper to him that I can. I can open my home to others, and share the love of Jesus by practicing hospitality. What gifts have I been given? I can share those and thus serve the Lord.
-I leave the future in God's hands. It does no good to worry about the future. I have very little control over the days to come--but God does. He already knows what will happen in my future, because he is eternal--not bound by time.
God made a promise to his people Israel that applies to his people today, too:
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord... (Jeremiah 29:11-14a)Jesus taught this to his disciples in Matthew (6:31-34):
"So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Emphasis added)Finally, we can be certain that nothing in the past, present or future will ever change the way God loves us, and he will let nothing separate us from him.
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39, emphasis added)What does this mean for us? It means we can embrace our life, wherever we are in it, without fear and with joy, because God has our future in his hands. He has a plan for us. And his love for us is unchanging, and will stay the same forever, no matter what the future holds.
Linking with: A Proverbs 31 Wife, What Joy is Mine, The Alabaster Jar, Raising Arrows, The Better Mom, the Modest Mom
What a great post! :) Most of the time, I am fairly certain that I'm not cut out to be a mother, because yes, I love children, but just thinking about having my own really, really bothers me. I'll take care of other people's babies...I'm just SO not sure about the whole pregnancy thing. Not to be a downer or anything. I just...don't know if it's my calling.
ReplyDeleteThanks! And that's ok! One person's calling is not necessarily everyone else's. :) I've known since I was little that more than anything, I wanted to be a wife and mother. That hasn't changed--those are my two biggest desires! But God calls each of us to unique vocations.
DeleteHowever, being a mother is an amazing way to further the Kingdom--just think, as a parent, you and your spouse have the opportunity to raise more people to love and believe in Jesus, and thus make a difference in their lives (and others') for ETERNITY! It's a huge responsibility but SUCH a privilege.
That's what I'm excited for. :) I know pregnancy and motherhood are NOT easy. But at the same time, I can hardly wait.
(That said, I am SO nervous that I'll end up with bad morning sickness, because I do NOT handle nausea/vomiting well. I'm so scared that I'll have a difficult delivery someday and have a long recovery time. I'm terrified that I'll have no idea how to be a good mother. But see post above, lol...that's ALL in God's hands!)
Oh my goodness! You just said what I've been thinking all along in the post above and then in this comment. I am the same way about being sick, I cannot handle it at all!
DeleteThe other thing I truly am scared about is the same thing I'm excited about. The Honor of raising little ones to love and serve the lord. I just worry sometimes that I will fail in that area. Any way, I know God is in control, I am just human and therefore forget that at times.
So, while you wait to become a mom, do all you can to prepare yourself spiritually for those blessed days ahead. I linked up right after you today on the Modest Mom.
ReplyDeleteEXACTLY. :) Right now is all about preparing and living life to the fullest. :)
DeleteJaimie,
ReplyDeleteI here you... boy do I hear you. While you're thinking about the joys and scariness and changes ahead in one day becoming a mother, I'm thinking about becoming a teacher, and all that is coming after graduation. But the truth is, that time isn't here yet. Thanks so much for your encouragement to live in the here and now, and for reminding me that I'm not alone in my struggles :)