Most women don’t understand how critical their role of motherhood is – not only to the family but to the world. Every great leader has a great mother.
Good mothers see their children as their ministry. I remember talking to God about our four ‘married’ children. The Lord said, “You aren’t done raising them yet.” No matter how old your children are they still need the wise counsel and prayers of mothers and fathers, and grandparents too.
As wives and mothers who are “in Christ” we should understand what the Lord’s people will be doing when He returns for His thousand year reign on earth so that we will make, not only ourselves ready for the Lord, but our children ready for the Lord too; ready for our positions with Him in His millennial kingdom. Knowing this, how should we think and live NOW?
It is said that Solomon’s mother nick-named him Lemuel which means “devoted to God.” The name Solomon means “consecrated to God.” This implies she was a humble praying woman; a woman who listened to God’s Spirit and trusted in God’s promises for her children. God highly favors a faithful woman’s prayer life and the wisdom behind the teaching she gives to her children – because she sees GREATNESS in each of her children, just as her God does.
What makes a woman – a woman of “excellence?” She has a heart after God’s. She sees herself as God sees her. She conducts herself as one who has worth and advantage from God. She takes her God-given responsibilities seriously. She doesn’t do anything half-hearted because (as my husband says), “If it’s worth doing – it’s worth doing right.” She works to bring out the best in people, especially her family. She does not overlook little things or consider small things insignificant. She is reluctant to give over her duties as a wife and mother to others because her husband, children and home all reflect who she is, and she reflects God’s household. In all she does – she strives for excellence.
It will take God’s most-excellent women to raise up their children to be honorable men and women that are prepared and ready to reign with Christ Jesus. When we look out over our chaotic sin-diseased world we should be compelled and highly motivated as wives and mothers to get back to living as the Word of God commands us to live. A marriage, a church or a nation’s blessings from God will only be received by adhering to God’s ways and rules. His standard has never changed because God has never changed.
To be a woman of excellence takes courage, and especially in today’s world. Without confidence in God and in His Kingdom a woman will not achieve her true potential of womanhood. Years ago I had a hotel maid return to my room with a necklace she had worn to work that day, not knowing why she felt the great urge to wear it but sensing that God wanted her to wear it that day for some reason. She had never worn it to work before. As she made up my room and I worked on my computer – we got to chatting and found out that we were both in love with Jesus. She returned an hour later after cleaning my room with the necklace she had worn to work that day. She told me that God told her to give me her “courage necklace.” She was so thrilled to give that special necklace of hers to me. It was hard for me to accept it. As she put it around my neck I wondered what God was telling me in this ‘obvious’ divine moment.
This was a time in my life when I was trying to fit in with what the Pastor’s wife wanted me to do for her ministry to the women in the church. There is nothing wrong with helping the pastor’s wife minister to the women in your church, but it is wrong to ‘not’ ask the Lord what He would have you do with the gifts and talents that He gave you to serve HIM with.
It takes courage to tell a pastor that you can’t do what they would like you do in the church. It takes courage to do what God wants you to do while everyone else is doing something else. It takes courage to speak the truth in a time or place where truth is no longer important. It takes courage to remain in your anointed place of serving God while being regarded as a divisive person or rebuked for being out of touch with reality. It takes courage to stand on God’s Word and what He says to you personally – no matter what people think of you. God was telling me to “be courageous” with His purpose in my life.
If I had brought it to my husband for his thought, approval and direction as to what the pastor’s wife was inviting me to do with her ministry, my time there might have turned out differently. We are all Eve’s daughters and we all need to understand that the devil has plans with subtle schemes that are not for us but against us.
What other people want you to do with them or for them because of the excellent gifts and talents they see in you is normal, but it can keep you from serving God’s most excellence purpose for why He gave you those gifts and talents. It can prevent you from becoming a woman of excellence, and from raising children in the same way.