"Just" a Mom

So I've started a new Bible study called Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted by Pricilla Shire.  I can tell you right now that this study is amazing, but it's going to be a BIG BIG challenge for me.  You see God places things in my life that I don't want to do and things that I'm ok doing but don't really know how to do them or where to begin, but that's not my issue, my issue is that sometimes I don't know if what I feel like doing or I should be doing is really of God.  Does anyone else have this problem?  I feel like God should be able to speak softly to me and my heart is open to hear His voice and I should know without a doubt what He is asking for my life.  I know that God wants to use each of us for His glory, but I'm having so much trouble with what my place should be.  Maybe it's that stay at home mom mindset, you know the one where when asked about what you do for a living you say, "Oh, I'm just a mom."  Just a mom, is it really that hard to accept that being a mom is one of the hardest and best jobs out there?  But don't we all chime in and try to negate the fact that we work our tails off?  We try to make it sound so insignificant when we're asked about it.  So my struggle here is, I'm JUST a mom right now and I'm not really sure if that's all God is really asking of me or if I'm missing something else.  Should I be out there volunteering my time and making big waves in the universe?  Should I be serving people or children or the needy and homeless?  Should I be teaching or preaching His word?  What is my place?  What is my purpose?

And yet every time I pray about my place in this world I hear a tiny whisper, "Be patient my child."  Patience is very hard for me.  I want to know what my life holds.  I want to be bigger than "just" a mom.  I want more than that.  But what if my wants for myself aren't exactly God's wants.  Is that my interuption this study is talking about?  Is my interupted life simply that my plans were to be great and God's plans were that I'd just be an influence on my own kids and not the whole world.

Well let's look at a "just a mom" and see what God had in store for her.

How about the world's most famous Christian speaker, yes Mr. Billy Graham himself.  Who is to thank for teaching him so much about Jesus and raising him to be the man he is today?  Besides God of course a big influence in his life was his mother, Morrow.  Here is a quote taken from his website about his mother and his life as a child:

"In many Crusades over the years," wrote Billy, "I have devoted at least one message to the subject of the family. In my Depression-era growing-up years, I suppose we Grahams on our North Carolina dairy farm bore some resemblance to the fictional Walton family on television. It’s easy to feel nostalgic about simpler times, but they obviously were not easier times. Nor were they necessarily happier times.

"What we did have back then was family solidarity. We really cared about each other, and we liked to do things together. Jesus’ word picture of a hen gathering her brood under her wing fits my mother. She saw to it that we gathered frequently and regularly—and not just around the dinner table or in front of the radio for favorite broadcasts. She gathered us around herself and my father to listen to Bible stories, to join in family prayers, and to share a sense of the presence of God."

On August 14, 1981, Morrow Graham quietly left this earth in her sleep and entered Heaven.

"When word came," said Billy, "I wept and yet rejoiced at the same time. Of all the people I have ever known, she had the greatest influence on me. I am sure one reason that the Lord has directed and safeguarded me, as well as Ruth and the children, through the years was the prayers of my mother and father."

Speaking on Mother’s Day 2003, Billy told the audience in San Diego that his mother was a farm woman. "She and my father didn’t have much education … But my mother was a woman of God. She always had devotions with us, she always prayed with us, she always loved us, and did so many things, as I look back now, out of the way. And she and my fat
 her, when I was in Bible school, they would go up to a room upstairs and kneel down every morning at 10 o’clock to pray for their son in Bible school. Billy Graham Webpage

So you can tell from his recounting his life that she had a great influence on him and who he became.  I guess that means she wasn't "just" a mom.  But I bet back then she had no idea that God's plan for her was to mother this man who would change the world.  I bet when asked what she did for a living she probably would say oh I'm just a mom.  Course back then every woman was a mom and not usually a career woman like so many are today.

So I may not have this big career ahead of me.  I may not really change the world as far as I can see for myself, but maybe my purpose in life is just to exist as the best wife and mother I can for my children and husband and push them to their own world changing lives.  Maybe I'm "just" a mom whispering quietly the words of Jesus in their ears each night and praying faithfully each day for their happiness and that they would each find Jesus.

I'm okay being "just" a mom if that's God's plan for me.  Even if that's the interuption He has for my life I will accept it until further notice of any other plans He might want to bring my way.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.