Mission: Quiet Suburban Life
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I found myself encouraging another friend with the same passage when she admitted that she just wanted to skip this life and get to heaven, even though she has a successful career and travels globally for her job. I then saw a Facebook status update from a missionary affirming the difficulties of domestic life. She may be living overseas, but she has to change diapers like the rest of us!
The longing for something more plagues us, whether we are homemakers, working moms, or missionaries abroad, but the purpose of life is not to maximize our enjoyment now. We suffer and persevere in this current life for a future joy, which is our hope. This hope relieves me of the feeling that my current life is wasted if every moment isn't completely satisfying and fulfilling. And it is this hope that inspires me to continue with my quiet life until God calls me elsewhere.
Picture of a Quiet Life
Although I've given up many of my worldly ambitions to pursue the ambition of a quiet life, I haven't given up who I am. My husband and I may not frequent the symphony anymore, but we share our love for music with our kids by listening to classical music with them. I don't have an office with a view anymore, but I do occasional work for my employer that makes use of the hours I spent achieving my professional designation. I haven't gone on any short-term mission trips lately, but we support several missionaries, and when others hear the gospel for the first time, I rejoice, knowing that I don't have to be the messenger to take joy in the delivered message.
And my day-to-day life? Still very mundane. Just because God has challenged me to pursue this life doesn't mean things are suddenly exciting! But I've learned that even the mundane can be significant. Although my activities don't seem to add up to anything by the end of each day, the days add up to become years of my children's lives, and those years form the backbone of who they will be as adults. My quiet life is significant…just not in the attention-grabbing way I anticipated as a college student.
I'm still willing to go anywhere for Christ, and if he calls, I'll go, but I've now also added suburban America to my definition of "anywhere."
Cathy is a wife and mother of two who lives in Texas.
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A fresh and honest look at being a Christian mom. Sometimes the day to day IS boring, but it's important to renew our minds to see things as the Lord sees them and not be taken in by the trappings of the world. In a real sense mom's often do sacrifice a career to stay at home with the kids. After a 16 year interval at home, I'm looking at stepping back into my professional field, and yes,, my resume is shorter than my counterparts who kept working full time. There is some discussion of this in the blogosphere, but not from a Christian world view- which makes all the difference. With all the "destiny" talk prevalent in so many churches, the quiet life of obedience is seen as less spiritual. But God said He wants our obedience and trust, and the "quiet life" is chock full of that!
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