IThis is the start of my newest piece for Risen Motherhood. You can read the whole article here.
When we moved across the country with a preschooler and a baby struggling with serious medical issues, I found myself in a very narrow season of life. My days were filled with simply doing the next thing—making sure the kids were fed and clothed, setting up utilities in our new home, figuring out where the grocery store was, and running to hardware stores for items we didn’t know we needed.
As a previous work-outside-the-home mom, I found myself in an internal near-panic over the narrowness of my life. In such a season of transition and change, my children needed me deeply. My husband, who was settling into a new pastoral position, was busy with church meetings and staff management. My son’s medical needs dominated the first year of his life, and required a great deal of time, planning, and prayer.
My life, while not actually quiet with two kids, felt very quiet externally. I felt hidden and unseen. I wasn’t involved in any ministries at church yet. I wasn’t writing. I didn’t know our congregation. And I couldn’t quite shake the nagging fear that I was missing out. It was difficult for me to trust that working at these things—things that no one else saw or praised—was the most valuable thing I could be doing. I struggled to rejoice in Paul’s exhortation to “work heartily, as for the Lord” in “whatever” I was doing (Col. 3:23-24). Needing to trust that I was ultimately serving the Lord through the narrowness of my responsibilities challenged my internal markers and vision of success.
You can read the entire article here, at Risen Motherhood!
