With God, Nothing is Wasted
I took a deep breath and opened my office door for the last time. With a son just five months shy of his first birthday, I had already struggled my way through surviving the school year, since returning from maternity leave. Rushed arrivals to work after daycare drop off, rushed departures from work for daycare pickup, and rushed pumping sessions in between meetings left me feeling weary and depleted.
So, with the news that our family would be growing by one, in addition to immense joy and gratitude, I felt burdened by the thought of balancing my demanding job with mothering two small children. Prayerful consideration and hard conversations led me to leave my job as a counselor to serve full-time in my home.
As I packed up five years worth of office materials with a belly doubled in size, uncertainty began to creep in. Among other things, I felt the weight of my degrees—the last things to come down off of the walls. Were the years poured into preparing for my career a waste of time? Did the prestigious accolades mean anything now? Would long days working to care for my children be as fulfilling as working as a counselor? I ached for my uncertainty to transform into trust, so that I could be like the Proverbs 31 woman—clothed in strength and honor and able to laugh at the time to come.[1]
God’s truths are faithful to envelop any past regrets or future fears that we experience in regards to our career trajectories. If Christ is the cornerstone of all of our endeavors, every experience in our lives will carry eternal purpose. Here are two areas of reassurance provided by biblical truths:
1. Our experiences in one season equip, prepare, and sanctify us for the next season.
God’s word is filled with examples of people who left the comfort and familiarity of the jobs they knew, in order to pursue the calling of a new season. Jesus’ disciples—Andrew, Peter, James and John—all worked as fishermen prior to accepting Jesus’ invitation to a new life of following him. Jesus' intentionality in beckoning these men to specifically become “fishers of men” suggests that even though they would leave much behind to follow him, their years as fishermen were not wasted.[2]
Similarly, God can use our vocational skills and experiences in the context of motherhood. If you leave a career as a teacher, those skills can still be used to educate your kids in the home. If you leave a career as a nurse, those skills can still be used to care for the physical needs of your friends and family. If you leave a corporate job, those skills can help you problem solve and efficiently manage the obligations of your household. Likewise, if you continue life as a working mom, you carry the skills developed through mothering into the workplace—skills like improvising, multi-tasking, compassion, and patience.
But more important than the transference of skills from one role to another, is the sanctification that occurs as we follow Christ from one calling into the next. Like the disciples who were called to bear fruit in a new way for the glory of God, we can be confident that as moms, God can use every past season to produce fruit for our present and future sanctification. Our past, present, and future experiences act as tiny pixels God works together to form the image of Christ in us.
2. We can find purpose in any role when our success is defined by our service to the Lord.
Regardless of where the Lord calls us to work, we need to keep a gospel-centered mindset as we measure our success: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:23–24). Keeping this perspective helps us fight the temptation to believe that degrees, accolades, or a stellar performance inside or outside of the home give us more worth or value. This truth can relieve the pressure we put on ourselves to reach an earthly standard of success.
When we are working for the Lord and not for the affirmation or approval of man, we can walk with eternal, kingdom-minded purpose in any role. As we seek to fulfill this purpose, we can have full assurance that our heavenly Father sees, acknowledges, and rewards our desire to serve him and be a good steward of the work we have been called to in any given season. If our first priority is serving and glorifying him, we can serve wholeheartedly, regardless of the context.
Whether we work inside or outside of the home, we trade the worth that we find in our work for the worth of the finished work of Jesus. Our Creator has promised us that the good work he began in us will be carried on until the day of Christ Jesus.[3]
Nothing is wasted in the kingdom of God. All things can be used for the edification and benefit of our hearts, our households, our fellow saints, and our communities. Sister, we serve a King who is faithful to guide us through piles of laundry and piles of paperwork. He helps us navigate hard work meetings in the office and hard family meetings at the dinner table. He goes before us, daily, in the confines of our work buildings and in the four walls of our homes. Regardless of the titles we wear in each season, may we be mothers who believe that he is working all things together for our good and for his glory.[4]
[1] Proverbs 31:25
[2] Mark 1:17
[3] Phil 1:6
[4] Romans 8:28
