I recently spoke to a distraught Mom. From when she was a little girl she wanted to be a wife and a mother. By God’s grace, He gave her that wish. Along the way she had several children–girls and boys. Circumstances developed that home-schooling became the best option for educating them. So this Mom spent more than a decade diligently home schooling the children including weaving in Christian discipleship along the way. She was a stellar example of faithful prayer, sound education and godly discipline to her children such that they each knew the Lord and made professions to follow Him. With her husband, she also saw to it that the family was part of a thriving church that valued the Bible, community and living for the Lord.
But then God’s providence caused them to make a series of drastic life changes including moving and sending all the children still at home to public school. This Mom and her husband knew the pressure this change would have on the children. They also suspected to be out of the “bubble” of home schooling, vibrant youth group and established friendships would be costly.
The Mom was not surprised but not really prepared for what happened.
Slowly, the children drifted away from an interest in church, in the Bible or in living for the Lord. Previous, well established habits like personal devotions and regular conversations became things of the past. Bad influences and drugs entered into the picture. More and more, Mom stopped recognizing the children she had poured her life into and they stopped recognizing her. One by one they left the house to pursue worldliness and none included the Lord or His church in their lives.
Of course, this caused the Mom to redouble her efforts in prayer but a crack developed in her heart: these were her children for whom she sacrificed everything and the result? Disinterest in the Lord, selfishness and distance. Mom knew the Scriptures herself and so rested in God’s goodness and His providential plan–on her good days. But mostly, sadness settled around her as she saw her mission field yielding no fruit but overgrown with weeds. Thoughts of failure and wasted life, the realization of aging and little to show for her efforts, the nagging question of a child to her Father-God, “I did all this, Lord, as You instructed and led, and look what’s happened.”
I asked the Mom about missionaries that go into new fields, work for many years and either die on the field or leave it having seen no fruit. Were those wasted lives? Was that wasted effort? In 1958, four missionaries were murdered in Ecuador leaving wives and children and no fruit of their labors. Was that wasted effort? If you know the story of Jim Eliot and his companions, you know the answer is “No!” Still, Moms are missionaries and sometimes their fields lay waste even after years of hard, hard labor. It is hard to believe those are not wasted years, yet faith must prevail over fear: the fruit will appear in His time.
Moms, you are missionaries and you are not alone on the field. The seeds you sow are the Word of the Lord, the tears you shed water those fields, the weeds you rake up make room for the seeds to grow; the field’s Owner is watching. God has told us His word doesn’t return empty (Isaiah 55:11) but He hasn’t told us what or when that fullness will appear. Take heart: He can be trusted.
Bent World 