See-saw or sturdy ridge pole?

When I became a missionary I was ready to change the world!  All wonderful and good but unfortunately I didn’t ask God what His plans for me was….and so, very soon after giving up my career to be a full-time missionary I became a full-time mom!  Yes, 3 sons born in three years does that too you!  What a change in life direction!  I went from changing the world to changing nappies!  J  I do say of this with great respect – I firmly believe children are a blessing form the Lord and oh, has He thought me many, many valuable lessons since I became a mom!  But here I am, a mom-missionary with very unique challenges……

I have found through the years that people who want to help kind of generalize things very easy – some would say “well, the boys will be in school soon and then you will have time to do what you want.”  A nice thought, but I knew where the Lord was leading us, and that I would end up being the school too! No, the Lord had a plan for me – with my boys – a missionary-mom or rather a mom-missionary!

I think most missionary moms go through the see-saw of emotions about being there for their husband and kids and also being there for the people – and if there is such a thing as a see-saw with more than one plane of movement that would actually describe being a mom on the mission field much more accurate….now you are up and the (very time consuming)household is doing great , but then the school suffers – or you do well in language learning and then the house suffers, or the school is doing really great but language suffers, and so on and so on.  I think you get the point!  We have so many hats to wear that we kind of get lost at times of who we are and where we are going!

But then God comes alongside and fixes all these see-saw poles nicely together and as we trust Him for wisdom life is in balance.  I can be a ridgepole to those around me, but only if I cling to Him!  When I carry on in my own way, life at its best becomes overwhelming at an overwhelmingly fast rate!  How does He do it?  Well, for one He makes sure my focus is right and that I have His perspective on things and not the world’s perspective!  He helps me see my value in life, even though I do a lot of repetitious stuff!  God is the One who makes my hands gentle as I reach out to my own and others around me…..He makes me see His big picture! 

So in saying all of this, if you pray for missionaries, please pray for us as moms!  Pray that we will be able to live in balance – to be effective where He has placed us – a ridgepole and not a see-saw!