The Purpose Of Motherhood

Soon after, I found myself serving full time in crisis pregnancy ministry,
reaching out to women who were making life and death decisions…decisions that
would impact the rest of their lives. For ten brave years I poured my heart out
for women in need in a work that felt very important. At Blue Ridge Women’s
Center (http://blueridgewoman.org/), I found a place where my passions and
giftings met. I’m a truth-teller and a teacher. My greatest desire is to see the
Word of God — His truth — open the eyes of the blind and help them see a
different way. Working with women in their darkest hour gave me endless
opportunities to see God at work in real and tangible ways.

Every day was
an adventure! How would God provide? Whose life would He touch that day? What
results would our ministry get that could impact the Kingdom of God for all
eternity? What ways would I get in invest in other people’s lives that might
just make a difference?

My days serving at BRWC were some of the sweetest
times of ministry I’ve ever had. I grew as a Christian while I watched God move
in the women we served. Seeing His hand so clearly fueled my belief in what was
possible for my own life. I saw the Gospel in action, and it changed me
forever.

My Crystal Lewis-sized dream to be used by God as salt and light
was coming true…and then I became a mother.

Days that had once been
filled with purpose and passion quickly turned to days filled with diapers and
defeat. At BRWC, I could see God working every day. At home, I could barely see
Him at all. Any progress with my boys seemed slow and tedious, and came from a
place of persistence and monotony. My ability to think clearly, energetically,
and strategically seemed to turn to mush along with the carrots I tried in vain
to get my littles to eat. My boys pushed me to the brink and back over and over
again, and left me feeling useless, overwhelmed, and, if I’m honest, a little
lost. Over time, instead of joyfully singing “I will go,” I found myself
skeptically asking, “Where are You taking me? Why am I here? “What is my purpose
now?” and, “How do I use the gifts You gave me to make a difference
here?”

I’ve talked to thousands of moms over the years, and almost all of
them have had a similar experience. There’s something about the purpose of a
woman that feels lost when she becomes a mom. We struggle to understand what our
current circumstances have to do with the purpose we once had. We find it hard
to see how our giftings fit the motherhood mold, and sometimes, even have to lay
them down altogether. Many of us lose our identities completely because our
giftings were our purpose before we had children. When we suddenly can’t use
those gifts in the same way, or at all, anymore, we struggle to know what our
new purpose is.

Actually, it never changed, we just didn’t see it for
what it really was.

In Acts chapter six, we find the disciples
overwhelmed with the day-to-day work of the ministry. They’d been so focused on
just preaching the Gospel that the needs of the church were being overlooked.
Widows were being neglected and something had to be done to take care of their
needs.

Instead of just digging in and working longer hours, the disciples
decided they would choose, “…seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and
of wisdom…” (Acts 6:3) to be appointed to the duty of meeting those needs. One
of those seven was a man named Stephen.

In comparison with other
characters in the Bible, Stephen’s story takes up relatively little space, but
his life was used by God powerfully to ignite the Gospel and cause it to spread
like wildfire to the early church. Clearly, he was a man who loved the Lord and
had gifts uniquely suited for ministering to the poor and neglected of the
church. He was chosen from among thousands to be the hands and feet of the
disciples so they could be free to continue preaching and teaching, but we don’t
hear much about Stephen’s widow ministry after the fact.

In fact, we
never see the fulfillment of his appointment at all.

The very next
section of the book of Acts shows Stephen, “…doing great wonders and signs
among the people…” (Acts 6:8), and some of those people didn’t like it. What
follows is the story of Christianity’s first martyr. Stephen boldly tells it
like it is, accusing his accusers of being “…stiff-necked people,
uncircumcised in heart and ears…resist[ing] the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:51), and
for his commitment to the cause of Christ, is murdered.

You might read
that and think, “What in the world does that have to do with the purpose of
motherhood?”

Everything.

As far as we know, Stephen’s gifts were
related to service — taking care of the poor — but he died fulfilling his
purpose — to be spent for the Gospel, for the glory of Christ.

We don’t
have any indication from Scripture that Stephen died while in the act of
ministering to widows. What we know is that he was willingly poured out — killed
— in order to make much of the Gospel.

Mom, our giftings aren’t our
purpose. At various seasons of our lives we might get to use the gifts God’s
given us as a part of walking out our greater purpose, but there’s nothing in
the Bible that says using those gifts is our purpose. They were never ours to do
with as we pleased, but His to advance His Kingdom through us in whatever way He
saw fit. We can choose to get lost in the fact that motherhood changes the way
our gifts are used for a time, or we can hold them loosely, embracing our deeper
purpose — to be poured out for the sake of the Gospel however God
requires.

Knowing this, will we still go? Will we be salt and light in
our homes instead of the street? Will we live to show our children the cross no
matter the cost? Will we let go of our grip on our gifts and release the need to
have significance because of them, finding our significance instead in the
finished work of Christ?

If so, we’ll break free of the disappointment
motherhood sometimes brings, and even find joy in the difficult days of
weariness and defeat knowing we’re fulfilling our ultimate purpose, not just as
a mother, but as a child of God — to follow Christ wherever He leads, allowing
Him to use our lives — and our gifts — in the way that brings HIM the most
glory.

[written by Brooke McGlothlin]