Motherhood

"I think that motherhood is the highest calling. All women are not mothers, but I believe every woman is called to mother, to nurture life, to call forth life in others. Mothering is a hidden life. You sometimes feel like life is passing you by when you lay aside your career, your education and your personal desires for what feels like an eternity. And sometimes those things never get raised up again. When I was in my 30s, I called it the "wiping decade" because I was always wiping something: tears, bottoms, runny noses, countertops. I felt like a walking napkin. But Jesus said to be the greatest is to be the servant of all. God does his best work in hiddenness. And when you encourage and love your children, it tells them they are so valuable. They are worth it. And you are doing it millions of times over again with all of the choices you make every day. "Read me a book, Mom." And you read your son a book when you wanted to go soak in the tub. Now, your kids probably won't recognize it until they are 30 years old, which is incredibly hard, too. Motherhood is a life of sacrifice given in the service of others. There is incredible value in laying yourself aside for a season as you nurture your child's life. Someone once told me when my kids were little that these are the longest days and the shortest years. At the moment, they were just the longest days. But now they feel like the shortest years. "

~Stasi Eldredge