Important Things Are Not Always Big Things

• 2 a.m.  Wake to feed Baby
• 5 a.m. Baby wakes to be fed… I wake to feed
• 7 a.m. Wake to feed Baby and Big Boys
• 7:30 a.m. Start load of laundry
• 7:35 a.m. Put Baby down for nap
• 7:45 a.m. Unload dishwasher
• 7:50 a.m. Consol crying Baby who doesn’t want to go to sleep and pat his bottom while he falls blissfully into sleep
• 7:55 a.m. Clean up mess made by Big Boys eating breakfast
• 8:05 a.m. Remind Big Boys that they must be quiet while Baby sleeps
• 8:07 a.m. Try to get dressed/brush teeth/inevitably fail
• 8:10 a.m. Consol Baby who has inevitably been woken up by Big Boys
• 8:15 a.m. Possibly finish getting dressed
• 8:30 a.m. Get Big Boys dressed and playing
• 8:45 a.m. Sit down to read/Hear Baby crying
• 9:00 a.m. Feed Baby

This is a glimpse into a typical morning for me at the moment and to be honest the rest of my day doesn’t look too different. The life of a young mother often feels like a never ending cycle of feeding, cleaning, consoling, and correcting. The days (especially during this time with a newborn in the home) seem to slip by one after another with very little variation and with very few momentous accomplishments. Unless that is, like us you count potty training a 2 year old or getting a 3 week old to smile momentous.

There have been times when, attached to my nursing baby (for the fifth time that day) and simultaneously acting as a human rock wall for my rambunctious toddler, I have fancied my time could be better spent. Surely my talents, passions, and abilities could be better utilized by the Lord than they are in that moment and the 10 others exactly like it throughout the day.

The itch to do something the world can weigh and judge as important surfaces and suddenly this ministry called motherhood becomes a burden rather than a delight. Wiping bottoms, sweeping up the continual flow of crumbs and washing load after load of laundry all seem rather small and insignificant at times. It is when this particular itch arises that I recognize the temptation to reject the simple, yet obvious leading of the Lord for something I deem better, bigger, or more important. Yet, this–this day to day routine that is effectively molding human souls–is what the Lord has called me to.

Like the water and wind that slowly, but continuously work to carve impressively deep canyons into the earth’s surface, my work at times seems pointless. And yet, every moment, every minute that I choose to obey the Word of the Lord and walk in the ministry he has laid out for me, I am cultivating and nourishing the eternal souls he has entrusted to me. Everything I do, from the smallest act of service to the least impressive sacrifice of time is a precious stone I lay in the building of my children’s character. 

For this reason, I must remind myself to put aside all worldly notions of “time well-spent” and instead spend my time obeying the Lord in each individual moment, no matter how mundane or small the task set before me may seem. Years from now my agenda may be filled with different and more impressive activities, but they will never be more important that the ones that fill my days now.

“But when a little child in a mother’s bosom is loved, nursed, caressed, held close to her heart, prayed over, wept over, talked with, for days, weeks, months, years, it is no mere fancy to say that the mother’s life has indeed passed into the child’s soul. What it becomes is determined by what the mother is. The early years settle what its character will be, and these are the mother’s years.” (J.R. Miller)