I usually shy away from addressing why I stay home with my children. I will tell people why I value it so highly, what I love about it, what I would miss. But, it is difficult for me to discuss the depth of my convictions with friends who have made the choice to be working mothers. I love these women, and my heart aches for them – for what they have given up either purely by choice or by perceived lack of choice. I know that there are some women who are forced to work by life circumstances. I do not believe this is the case for the majority of women I interact with.

At the same time, I wrestle continuously with my own desire to do more “important” things. I believe myself to be a gifted person on some levels. I have things to offer society. I used to be one of those women who would say things like, “Oh, I could never stay home with my children. I would lose my mind!” (as if I were just too gifted to limit myself in that way!) It was hard to explain to fellow students in college why I suddenly shifted gears out of math and science and changed my major to Christian Education… the major that was often looked at as being full of guys who were going to be youth pastors and girls who just wanted to marry a youth pastor. I sat through my advanced calculus and quantitative analysis classes in order to finish minors in math and chemistry, and was often unsure how exactly to answer the curious inquiries about why a Bible major was in there with all those future chemists and mathematicians.

At first, my main motivation was purely a passion to write about and teach the Word of God. I was starting to see the big picture of God’s plan and I couldn’t believe how poorly it is often taught. But, God still had work to do in the core of my being regarding the priority of motherhood. I distinctly remember discussing Titus 2:4-5 in one of my Bible classes: “Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.” I truly wrestled with this (and still do at times!) because this really does NOT sound that important to a modern American mind. Love. Be self-controlled and pure. Be busy at home. (that one was particularly irking!) Be kind. Be subject to my husband. Why on earth did God make me good at math and various other things just to do dishes and change diapers? Surely this is not what it means! I have more important things to do in my life! I have ministry I’m called to do! Oh, how often we sincere believers have sacrificed our children to ministry rather than to God.

Long story short(er), God has profoundly changed my thoughts on this matter. I’m no longer sitting in a calculus class trying to explain my change of major; I’m sitting with women trying to explain why this is the most important thing I can do at this stage of the game. Why did God enable me to write and teach? Perhaps only for this humble blog! Maybe there is one person who will read one post and give her heart to Christ! Who knows!? Why did God enable me to do calculus? I have no idea! But I don’t need to know that right now. All I need to know is what He has called me to do right now: and unquestionably, He has called me to mother my children, teach them God’s Word, and lead them to His throne as best I can. Today I was listening to a message on parenting by Alistair Begg that encouraged me and put my deep feelings on this matter into words. So, I will quote him (he being much more of an authority on Scripture and just more eloquent in general!).

“Ladies, this is a full time job. Do not kid yourself that you can be a dental receptionist and a mom, that you can be a typist and a mom, that you can be a vice-president and a mom, that you can be all these things and a mom. One of the two things will win. Now, look at your Bible and ask what you have to do… are you prepared to trust God enough on one income? Are you prepared to trust your husband enough to go out and do the job so you may stay home and do the task? Because it will take everything in you! And listen: time is going through your fingers!…

We have yet to see the daycare generation arise to positions of leadership in this land. And while I recognize God to be sovereign in it all… that is going to be one unbelievable experience. For now you have children who have been devoid of the natural basic Creator’s plan for their lives in the very infancy of their nurturing. They do not understand what a family is. They do not understand whether their mother is their father or their father is their mother. They don’t know what they’re doing! And they are going to proceed into adolescence and beyond and they’re going to emerge to become the surgeons who will make ethical decisions when they take the organs out of your body and harvest them, they’re going to be the teachers who teach our children, they’re going to be the future leaders of tomorrow. Do you see how imperative it is that if you want to be a Christian in our day, you have to be prepared to swim upstream? You have to be prepared to go to those coffee things and when the ladies say, “And what do you do?” You say, “Laundry.” You say, “What do you think I do? Look at my hands!” Why? Because there is no higher calling!…

When the sun sets on our earthly journey and our children reflect upon our lives, their memories will not be stirred by our qualifications, by our financial status or our educational stature. They will not be preoccupied with the furniture we left them, the jewelry they now wear, the material things we’ve been able to leave behind. What will linger in their memory, and cause them to smile or move them to tears, will all have to do with the fact that we gave ourselves to them.

It is as a mother that your children will remember you most of all. Your tender sympathy, your compassion in their disappointments, your radiance even when half hidden through the mist of tears, your commitment even in the evenings of long unexplained sighs. It will not be that you managed to do it perfectly, nor even that you did so consistently. But know this: that deep in their spirits they will be able to say, ‘I was everything to my mom. She loved me to the point of fatigue. She listened when no one else would. She advised with my best interests at heart. She presented Christ to me, and me to Christ.’” [Pastor Alistair Begg - find this podcast and others on www.truthforlife.org.]

A few months back I saw this quote by Dennis De Hann that encouraged me deeply:
God has conferred on motherhood a true nobility, and she who gladly fills that roll can shape man’s destiny.

Amen. Strengthen our feeble arms for this unbelievable task, Lord Jesus.

Oh, how I love your law! I think about it all day long…
How sweet are your words to my taste; they are sweeter than honey.
Your commandments give me understanding; no wonder I hate every false way of life.
Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.
I’ve promised it once, and I’ll promise again: I will obey your wonderful laws.
Psalm 119:97, 103-106 (NLT)

I’m guessing that when you think about Old Testament law this is not the overriding feeling you have! David and others who walked with the Lord understood something that has been largely forgotten, ignored, or mistaught in our modern churches: there was purpose to the law, and God reveals Himself in it. Probably 99% (or more!) of us who endeavored to read through the Bible at some point in our lives got to Leviticus and suddenly stopped in our tracks, and then flipped to Matthew! So, let’s take a look… and may God open our eyes to His great plan which includes even Leviticus!

First of all, let’s look at the main thing we get tripped up on when looking at Old Testament law. Some of the laws sound familiar, and we know that we are supposed to follow them. For instance, Exodus 20:13-16: “You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Got it. Now, what do we do with passages like Leviticus 19:19: “You shall keep My statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with mixed seed. Nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you.”? Hmmm…

Misunderstanding Old Testament law has caused all kinds of problems within the church and outside the church. My husband recently was required to attend an in-house training session at work. The topic was cultural sensitivity and “education” regarding homosexuality. One of the handouts was addressing the problem that “religious people” have with homosexuality. It took various passages from the Bible that address the issue, and then said, “But the Bible also says…” and quoted this verse from Leviticus 19:19 about not having a garment of mixed linen and wool. The implication: The Bible is outdated and irrelevant, and because Christians don’t follow Leviticus 19:19, they can’t defend their position about homosexuality being classified as sin.

To help clarify things in our minds, let’s compare this with something we’re familiar with. The laws of England and the laws of the United States are very similar in many ways. Both provide for freedom of speech, both require taxes of the citizens, both provide police protection, both have freely elected executive and legislative branches of government, both provide for health care, etc. However, if England passes some random law that all brunettes must dye their hair blond, would I have to do that? Absolutely not! Why? Because I’m not a British citizen. I am an American. Even though our laws are very similar, I am technically not under any of their law! I pay taxes to my government not because England requires that, but because the United States requires that.

Comparatively, as New Testament believers, we find that our “law” is very similar to the Old Testament law. Both tell us to love God, love our neighbor, tell the truth, etc. However, although our law is similar to the Old Testament law, technically we’re not under any of it! It was an Israel-specific covenant. Israel was a theocracy ruled by God Himself, set apart as a unique kingdom of priests. As we will discuss in the next post, there were many different reasons for the variety of laws given. And yes, as God’s unique nation, they were not to have a shirt made up of a linen/wool blend. However: I don’t live in Old Testament Israel! Much of the law might be similar, but technically we’re not under any of it. The moral laws (love God, love neighbor, tell the truth, etc.) apply to us because they are still part of the New Covenant. We will discuss this in coming posts, as well.

God’s Word is awesome! So, before you tear Leviticus out of your Bible and chalk it up to a literary failure, keep reading… Our God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow… and Leviticus has some very important principles for us to meditate on.

This will be our last post on the book of Exodus. One of the reasons I love Exodus is that God so profoundly reveals Himself in this book. He takes a group of people, an oppressed minority within the most powerful civilization on earth, introduces Himself to them, shows Himself greater than all the gods of Egypt, redeems them out of slavery so powerfully that they walk out in full view of their oppressors, allows them to walk through the Red Sea on dry ground, miraculously provides daily food and water, and forms a covenant relationship with them as His chosen people out of all the earth. Let me give a brief tour of His introduction thus far:

• The Sovereign one – able to use whomever he wishes to bring glory to Himself! (1-3)
• I AM – The powerful promise-keeper, the one who remembers His people (3:7-15)
• The King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the One True God! (7-14)
• “I, the LORD, am your healer” – the one who provides for His people. (15:26)
• “The LORD is my banner” – the one who protects His people. (17:15)
• A jealous God – the only one worthy of worship. (20:5, 34:14)
• “I am the LORD who sanctifies you.” – He alone can cleanse us from sin. (31:13)
• “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth.” (34:6)

“Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits -
Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.
He made known His ways to Moses, his deeds to the children of Israel.”
Psalm 103:1-7

Today’s post will be short. I just needed to point out how God works in people’s lives. Remember dear Moses who wanted nothing to do with God’s commissioning back in Exodus 3? (“Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”) Remember, Moses is not the hero. God is the hero. God took this man, a murderer, a man who absolutely did not want to lead His people, a man racked by his own insecurities, and transformed him.

“So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Then Moses said to the LORD, ‘See, Thou dost say to me, ‘Bring up this people!’ But Thou Thyself has not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me. Moreover, Thou hast said, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’ Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found favor in Thy sight, let me know Thy ways, that I may know Thee, so that I may find favor in Thy sight… If Thy presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here… I pray Thee, show me Thy glory!” 33:11-13, 15, 18

Moses finally gets it. His gaze has shifted from himself to God. God is the real treasure. It’s not about our comfort, our health, our happiness, our security, the “fuzzy feeling” we get in church when we sing our favorite song. It’s all about God. God is the real treasure, and once we get a taste of Who He truly is, we’ve got to have more. Heaven is going to blow our minds, friends. In the meantime… Lord, please show us Your glory!

Psalm 42:1-2 (NLT)
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so I long for you, O God.
I thirst for God, the living God.
When can I come and stand before him?