Mother Tempted to Feel That Her Work Is Unimportant. --The mother's work
often seems to her an unimportant service. It is a work that is rarely
appreciated. Others know little of her many cares and burdens. Her days are
occupied with a round of little duties, all calling for patient effort, for
self-control, for tact, wisdom, and self-sacrificing love; yet she cannot boast
of what she has done as any great achievement. She has only kept things in the
home running smoothly. Often weary and perplexed, she has tried to speak kindly
to the children, to keep them busy and happy, and to guide their little feet in
the right path. She feels that she has accomplished nothing. But it is not so.
Heavenly angels watch the careworn mother, noting the burdens she carries day by
day. Her name may not have been heard in the world, but it is written in the
Lamb's book of life.
The true wife and mother . . . will perform her duties with dignity and
cheerfulness, not considering it degrading to do with her own hands whatever it
is necessary to do in a well-ordered household.
Regarded as Inferior to Mission Service. --What an important work! And yet we
hear mothers sighing for missionary work! If they could only go to some foreign
country, they would feel that they were doing something worth while. But to take
up the daily duties of the home life and carry them forward seems to them like
an exhausting and thankless task. Mothers who sigh for a missionary field have one at hand in their own home
circle. . . . Are not the souls of her own children of as much value as the
souls of the heathen? With what care and tenderness should she watch their
growing minds and connect God with all their thoughts! Who can do this as well
as a loving, God-fearing mother?
There are some who think that unless they are directly connected with active
religious work, they are not doing the will of God; but this is a mistake.
Everyone has a work to do for the Master; it is a wonderful work to make home
pleasant and all that it ought to be. The humblest talents, if the heart of the
recipient is given to God, will make the home life all that God would have it. A
bright light will shine forth as the result of wholehearted service to God. Men
and women can just as surely serve God by giving earnest heed to the things
which they have heard, by educating their children to live and fear to offend
God, as can the minister in the pulpit.
These women who are doing with ready willingness what their hands find to do,
with cheerfulness of spirit aiding their husbands to bear their burdens and
training their children for God, are missionaries in the highest sense.
Religious Activities Should Not Supersede Care of Family. --If you ignore
your duty as a wife and mother and hold out your hands for the Lord to put
another class of work in them, be sure that He will not contradict Himself; He
points you to the duty you have to do at home. If you have the idea that some
work greater and holier than this has been entrusted to you, you are under a
deception. By faithfulness in your own home, working for the souls of those who
are nearest to you, you may be gaining a fitness to work for Christ in a wider field. But be sure that those who are
neglectful of their duty in the home circle are not prepared to work for other
souls.
The Lord has not called you to neglect your home and your husband and
children. He never works in this way; and He never will. . . . Never for a
moment suppose that God has given you a work that will necessitate a separation
from your precious little flock. Do not leave them to become demoralized by
improper associations and to harden their hearts against their mother. This is
letting your light shine in a wrong way, altogether; you are making it more
difficult for your children to become what God would have them and win heaven at
last. God cares for them, and so must you if you claim to be His child.
During the first years of their lives is the time in which to work and watch
and pray and encourage every good inclination. This work must go on without
interruption. You may be urged to attend mothers' meetings and sewing circles,
that you may do missionary work; but unless there is a faithful, understanding
instructor to be left with your children, it is your duty to answer that the
Lord has committed to you another work which you can in no wise neglect. You
cannot overwork in any line without becoming disqualified for the work of
training your little ones and making them what God would have them be. As
Christ's co-worker you must bring them to Him disciplined and trained.
Much of the malformation of an ill-trained child's character lies at the
mother's door. The mother should not accept burdens in the church work which
compel her to neglect her children. The best work in which a mother can engage
is to see that no stitches are dropped in the training of her children. . . .
In no other way can a mother help the church more than by devoting her time
to those who are dependent upon her for instruction and training.
Aspirations for a Broader Mission Field Are Vain. -- Some mothers long to
engage in missionary labour, while they neglect the simplest duties lying
directly in their path. The children are neglected, the home is not made
cheerful and happy for the family, scolding and complaining are of frequent
occurrence, and the young people grow up feeling that home is the most
uninviting of all places. As a consequence, they impatiently look forward to the
time when they shall leave it, and it is with little reluctance that they launch
out into the great world, unrestrained by home influence and the tender counsel
of the hearthstone.
The parents, whose aim should have been to bind these young hearts to
themselves and guide them aright, squander their God-given opportunities, are
blind to the most important duties of their lives, and vainly aspire to work in
the broad missionary field.