by: Carly Goddard
Proverbs 31:31, “Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.”
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, ”And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.”
2 Thessalonians 3:7-11, “For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you; Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.”
Titus 2:3-5, “The aged woman likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”
All of theses verses deal with the same subject: Working hard.
Life is full of hard work! Whether you are in secular or Christian work, life is just plain hard work. If you want to lose weight it takes time, planning and hard work. If you want to build a house it takes long hours and hundreds of decisions. If you want to be promoted in your job, you’re going to have to give extra hours at work. It’s funny that we can understand this, but it is hard to see why the Christian doing the work of God will encounter hard things.
Why does a marriage thrive or why do children obey their parents? Why does the house get cleaned, fixed or remodeled? Why does the Sunday school class grow? Why do people get saved? Because people work hard. I’m thankful to the many people in my life who have taught me to do hard things. Whether it was cleaning the house from top to bottom, taking care of many small children, working out in the yard or all three at once; I was taught to see it through even though it was hard.
To be a successful wife, mother and Christian lady, you need to work and learn ways to improve in areas that are difficult for you. I used to do my laundry once a week. We now have three children and I cannot wait a week to do laundry. It becomes a massive job. I try to do laundry every day. The weekend is a little crazy and sometimes nothing gets touched until Monday morning, but my goal is every day.
We can get overwhelmed and think that we are not doing a good job. Cleaning bathrooms, mopping floors, vacuuming, detailing kids’ rooms, organizing new books your husband buys (my husband loves books), inputting receipts for the budget, cleaning out the toy box (our kids are always winning something in class or getting spoiled by family), shampooing carpets, painting, raking, weeding, checking to make sure the animals (rabbits, chickens, and dog) have been fed and cleaned up after. Not to mention all the personal upkeep of everyone in your home with doctors, dentist, baths, two different years of chemo treatments, multiple surgeries, hospital visits (Josh was in for 4 days and another time 6 weeks), school, piano lessons, candy sale (32 boxes which is 960 candy bars). (My husband is in charge of the Teen Department and I teach 7th-grade girls.) We go to the nursing home twice a month and hold services with some teens and our family. These teens come to our house once a month and eat. We have teen activities once a week. We have a lot of workers that do an amazing job, but sometimes we do the food for activities or special Sundays.
I hope you understand that life is hard work. To tell you that I feel like I am doing an amazing work for the Lord every day would be a lie. To tell you that I wake up every morning and jump for joy at the thought of being a mother of three precious children and a wife to a wonderful, Christian man who loves his family and the Lord would be exaggerating. To tell you that I am excited to go out witnessing every time I go would be far from the truth. BUT, I should be this type of lady! I have so much to be grateful for in being a wife, mother and Christian. Why am I not very excited every time? It’s hard work! The difference between the happy Christian wife and mother and the frustrated one is that one perseveres and the other gives up.
I want to enjoy the work I do. Instead of looking at the work as a chore, I have to remind myself that Jesus gave me this very important job. Only I can do this particular work, no one else. Stop a couple of times throughout your day and remember that those people who live with you are your family. You only have a little bit of time with your kids. You really don’t know how much time you have with any of them. If you need help with a certain area of your life, get help from someone who knows how to do that specific thing well. I have learned so much from people I go to church with. There are so many people who are responsible for any good that comes from me. God uses people to help people. I am indebted to both my family and my church family for teaching me how to work hard. We must teach the next generation to work hard. Our country is suffering because people have the idea that life should be easy. No doubt this teaching comes from Hollywood movies and worldly heroes. We cannot teach anyone if we ourselves fail to work hard and improve the areas that we find more difficult. Thank you to those of you who are called mom, wife, or Christian worker. You are making a difference in someone’s life and in that you are doing an amazing work for the Lord!! Don’t quit – Keep up the good work!!!
Carly Goddard
Youth Pastor’s wife
Wildomar, CA