“For too many years I was stuck at home taking care of my children, but then they grew up and I was finally able to do ministry for God!” I heard these words spoken by a woman at a meeting.
I was filled with anger and frustration. It was all I could do to stay seated in my chair. I wanted to protest!
The next day I was the speaker, and I got to share the burning passion of my heart: When mothers stay home with their children and raise them up for God, they are doing God’s appointed work for them and the most important work on earth! If you have been blessed to have the gift of children,, why not enjoy them? Why not be the one to teach them about God’s love and plan for their lives?
Before my first son was born, I was sure that I would go back to work three or four weeks after his birth. But when I got him in my arms, I thought, How can I leave this precious gift from God for someone else to enjoy? I want to see his first smile! I want to watch him sit up and walk for the first time. I want to enjoy him!
There is no greater work under heaven! Do not let anyone belittle you into thinking that you are nothing and doing nothing for God by staying home with your children.
As I travel the world with my work, I meet many women who are very busy doing God’s work or working jobs. But where are their children? Who is teaching them about the love of God and His valuable life-changing principles for their lives?
My oldest son and his wife have three children. Shenalyn involves her children in ministry. They go together to pass out Christian literature. They work together to help people people in the community. They make bread together or simple gifts to give out to neighbors to show them Jesus' love.
Erica, a stay-at-home mom, has five children. They go often to nursing homes and hospitals to sing and put on programs for the patients. Other families pass out free water bottles, do free car washes/motorcycle washes, or give out food to the poor. There are so many simple ways to love people to Jesus and teach our children that they too can be involved in ministry. And this is the greatest ministry—teaching your children to love people lto Jesus.
You don’t need to do it for hours. Keep the time short--perhaps just 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the age of your children. But do something with your children regularly to help them experience the joy of ministering to others.
Nothing touches people more than having a little child pray for them. Just going around a community and knocking on doors and offering to pray with people is amazing!
When our youngest son was five years old, we would make bread and deliver it to our neighbors. It led to a friendship with one neighbor. She and her husband had a three-year-old girl who always wanted to play with my son. Now, he was not thrilled about playing with a little girl, but I told him that he was witnessing for God by playing and being nice to her. We would pray together for God to bless him in loving the little girl for Jesus, and we prayed for God to open the way for her parents to learn Bible truths and accept Jesus into their lives.
Her parents were so impressed that our son was so loving and patient in playing with their daughter. Through this and other things God led us to do, the parents accepted Jesus and joined the church.
You are doing the greatest work staying home with your children, teaching them about Jesus and training them to live their lives for Jesus.
“No Work Is Greater or Holier—If married men go into the work, leaving their wives to care for the children at home, the wife and mother is doing fully as great and important a work as the husband and father. Although one is in the missionary field, the other is a home missionary, whose cares and anxieties and burdens frequently far exceed those of the husband and father. Her work is a solemn and important one. . . . The husband in the open missionary field may receive the honors of men, while the home toiler may receive no earthly credit for her labor. But if she works for the best interest of her family, seeking to fashion their characters after the divine Model, the recording angel writes her name as one of the greatest missionaries in the world. God does not see things as man’s finite vision views them.” The Adventist Home, p. 235.
