This is Holy Work
It was one of Those Days (TM). The house was a little messier than normal. There were more bad attitudes than normal. Our homeschool day so far had been less productive than normal. I was more tired than normal. There were more people crying than normal. That is to say, five of my eight children were crying at the same time for different reasons.
I walked around managing the wailing chaos, hugging toddlers, nursing the baby, giving the older kids instructions. Sometimes it helps to split people up to break up the crazy, you know?
Finally there were fewer people crying than not. Now all I had to do was change two poopy diapers and get three little ones down for a nap. One diaper was completed, and I was making my way down the hallway, a wiggly newborn on one arm and a tired, crying toddler in the other (who was also due for a diaper change). Overwhelm wrapped its tendrils around my soul. I started to feel the familiar squeeze, and the inner mutterings began, “What am I doing? How can I possibly encourage other moms if I can’t even get my own act together? Will anyone ever want to hear from me?”
In the midst of this, I felt the Lord whisper to my heart, “Do you believe this is holy work?” It stopped me in my tracks. The internal chaos froze. I felt myself say tentatively, “Yesss…I do.” Then, with more certainty, “Yes. Yes it is.” And finally, with conviction, “YES! This IS holy work!Changing diapers, comforting my children, correcting them, cleaning my house—its ALL holy work. I’m doing this as unto the LORD. HE is the one this is all for. This is holy work.”
Suddenly everything shifted. Nothing externally had changed, but I was no longer overwhelmed by it all. I no longer felt like a fake and a failure. Changing a dirty diaper no longer seemed unimaginably dull and pointless (other than the obvious need). It was purposeful; it was powerful; it was holy.
Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”
In the original Greek, “all your heart” translates as “with your whole being”, and literally means “with your spirit, either abstractly or concretely”. With your spirit—ooh, that gets me!
When I do my everyday, simple, mundane, exhausting, boring (you know it can be), daily work, I AM serving the Lord with it, because He is the One who has called me to this life and these tasks. It is holy because of the initiator.
Now, there are many times in my daily life where what I’m doing absolutely feels like holy work: when my toddlers join in our Bible memorization and recite Scripture in their cute little voices, or I hear my kids pray, or lay my sleeping baby down in a sun-filled room and see her blissful little face. When I see the payoff of the hard work of discipline and purposeful parenting, or when my kids play sweetly together for a whole afternoon.
I’m so thankful for those times, because they are a tangible reminder to me that what God has called me to is holy, valuable, and worth it. God is so faithful to bless and reward our faithfulness and give us encouragement in the midst of our mission.
I get to decide if I’m going be in the headspace of working merely for my family, or if I’m going to recognize the holy nature of the work I’m doing based simply on the holiness of the One who called me to it. What a different way to think! Suddenly even the most basic of tasks takes on meaning and purpose. Tying shoes, brushing out tangled hair, hugging a toddler, looking for a very specific toy car, or nursing a baby is suddenly of great and holy importance.
It reminds me of a story in the Old Testament: There were a couple of men, Bezalel and Oholiab, who, for all we know, were just regular guys who had regular jobs. They made art with gold and knew how to set jewels and embroider things. They had just come out of Egypt—had they randomly gotten picked as slaves to learn these things? Now they find themselves out in the wilderness with the rest of their families, the Israelites, on a great national camping trip. Their skills probably seemed out of place.
Then one day Moses comes down the mountain from visiting face to face with the Living God and makes an announcement, and suddenly their regular old jobs don’t seem quite so insignificant anymore.
“Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.” (Exodus 35:30-35)
Their work didn’t change, but the purpose and calling did. God Himself consecrated their work, and filled them with skill. Their work became holy because God called them to it (and, I might add, filled them with the Spirit of God and anointed them with wisdom and skill to be able to pull it off).
Dear friend, you and I have been called to our work as well. Our normal, everyday mothering has purpose, and when we believe the truth that it is holy because God has called us to it, we get to tap into the fulness of the Spirit of God that enables us to do our work and do it well.
May we choose to believe that by mothering we are participating in holy work, and may the Lord bless us with His wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and all the skills we need to mother our children with purpose and grace.
Colossians 3:17
“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
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