I have so much to learn about being a joyful servant, especially for my family. Becoming a mother has certainly brought that to my attention.
Changing diapers at 2am, scrubbing toilets, giving up sleeping more than two hours at a time, and fighting aisle traffic at the grocery store…None of these chores had any part of my happily-ever-after dreams of marriage and motherhood. And yet, they are now an inescapable and integral part of my life. (And I don’t mean to imply that my husband never helps with any of these chores 🙂
Here I am, living out a “dream” of mine, and I realized recently that I’ve been using the wrong word to describe my life.
It’s my vocation I am living out–not my dream. It’s not living out our dreams that makes us happy and fulfills us; it’s living out the specific vocation for which God has created each of us. I know that my vocation to marriage and motherhood will make me happier and bless me and others in my lifetime more than any other path I could have chosen.
I think that is where the idea of joyful service comes in. In my case, that means choosing to remember that every dirty diaper and every hour of lost sleep is working toward making me the woman I was created to be so that I can love and help every person I was created to touch with my life.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
-Galatians 6:9
What an appropriate and helpful verse for a young mother like me!
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