Keeping the focus

I have been a mom for almost 17 years.  Sometimes I get tired and think to myself...."is this really ALL I am going to do with my life?"  Sometimes I do feel like I have been doing this FOREVER!!  Even being the joy that it is, life as a stay at home mom, wife and homeschooler can seem mundane and often feel like its not worth anything compared to the other "more useful" things I could be doing with my life.  I have struggled lately with a constant temptation to look else where for better "more important" places to put my efforts and abilities.

Not to long ago I was talking to an older woman who made a comment about mothering at my stage in life and it really got me thinking.  She said..

"being a mom is such a commendable job.  For some woman it feels like a life long task that never ends. There aren't a lot of stay at home moms anymore because the world tells us that we can do bigger and better things.  Stay at home moms now a days aren't even stay at home moms like we were in my day.  In my day we stayed at home and that was that.  If you got together with other women you got together with your children and then you went home and prepared dinner for your family.  There were no side jobs, no working from home, no trying to be a mom and do 100 other jobs on top of that. There comes a time when I think women start looking for something "more" when they aren't yet finished with the job God has given them.  If your children aren't grown yet ...you aren't finished yet.  They may get older but they don't get easier.  I commend women who stick with it until the end.  Women who don't slack off half way to the finish line looking for "something else" Those woman will be the ones to finish well and they will hear from the Lord one day that they have been good and faithful and rewarded as such"

Now some may look at this older woman and thing "wow what an old-school grump!"  I may have thought that at one time in my life too.  but as I get older I treasure more and more the wisdom of older women.  This lady is no exception.  I think there is great wisdom in what she shared with me that day and I also think was a perfectly timed message to me from the Lord.  She didn't know this, but I was struggling with exactly what she spoke about.  I have been a mom for SO long, and honestly was starting to feel somewhat burnt out and wondering if maybe it was time for me to look for more in my life.  A job?  more ministry?  something?? 

I know this is not the case for everyone and this was definitely a personal conviction for me.  It is by no means meant to discourage those moms who are working or finding other important things to do while also still raising children.  Some women can balance it all and they do it well, but for me and for me alone...I know that God is calling me to keep my focus here at home.  To raise my children, school my children, serve my husband, and not look to much else where my time and attention will be divided.  I do still have ministy and activities that I'm involved in but they are centered around my one main focus.....My family.  As I hone in more on that focus I will be writing more about what God is sharing with me about it including the things He is calling me to fucus more on as well as the things He's calling me to give up.   

"Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.’ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate." Proverbs 31:28-31