This summer we have enjoyed some fun family trips, pool days, playdates, and a few field trips, but overall most of our days have been spent at home. They have been filled with dishes, laundry, cooking, other house cleaning, organizing and prepping for the baby, some school activities, and my work tasks. Oh and of course ongoing training-correcting and conversations about behavior, loving and caring for others, and having a joyful attitude.

So many of the activities done in our home are seemingly unnoticed and repetitive tasks, and I’ve seen comments and memes online about stay-at-home parents sitting at home all day and doing nothing; and while I’m sure that happens on occasion, I know that being a stay at home parent is a full time job (also I’m not minimizing the responsibilities that working out-of-home parents have, but I’m simply sharing from my perspective as a stay-at-home mama) and has many never-ending responsibilities.

And I am completely here for it-ever since I was a little girl I wanted to be a stay-at-home Mama and raise up lots of little ones (although my definition of “lots of” has changed since marrying into a family of 9 kiddos haha). But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t very hard days, and it certainly doesn’t mean I knew everything that it would entail. I know there are a lot of mamas around me raising multiple toddlers and running a home who are often exhausted or feel like they are running on empty. And maybe you sometimes need a reminder (as I often do), of how important this call of motherhood really is.

There are days where piles of unending laundry, milk spills, wiping snotty noses, separating physical altercations, or changing diapers may seem like a meaningless cycle. And if our children are in a tough season (whether it’s not sleeping well, throwing fits, biting, lying, etc) it may feel as if we repeat conversations, strategies or the same prayers over and over to no avail. In those moments we don’t see the fruit of certain mundane or exhausting tasks.

It might seem as if these tasks aren’t nearly as important (or rewarding) as other types of ministry or work. But Charles Spurgeon (a well-known English preacher and author in the 20th century) put it well, when he said “You are as much serving God in looking after your own children, training them up in God’s fear, minding the house, and making your household a church for God as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts.” Mamas-if God has called us to this life of parenting, these “little tasks” are really not so little.

Recently, my mother-in-law shared a story of when she had 4 children, 5 and under and was watching 2 other children while their parents were away. She was potty training my future husband and one of the children she was watching was potty trained, but sick with diarrhea. She spent the entire day going from child to child; caring for them, cleaning up poop, and bathing the two little poopers. She stopped and laughed in the middle of it, realizing “God this is what you’ve called me to right now. To care for these children and to clean up poop.”

During that day, that was the most important calling she had. It would have been easy for her to get upset or feel like it was all pointless, but she knew it wasn’t. Galatians 6:9 says, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Today my mother-in-law has 9 children, 5 in-laws, and 10 grandchildren (with a few on the way). She and my father-in-law have many opportunities to speak and minister to various people in their marriages and raising up of children, as well as in their own family. They pray for us and encourage us as we walk through our own marriages, raise and homeschool our children, and are involved in various ministries.

She knew she wasn’t just cleaning poop, or washing dishes, or intervening in another disagreement…she wasn’t even just raising children; rather she was raising adults-raising up the next generation. And each of those individual tasks mattered. My in-laws often talk about being a ‘kingdom-focused family’ and their attitude about discipleship, even in the most mundane of tasks, has been teaching me so much about eternity and viewing the day to day with an eternal light.

It doesn’t mean that there won’t be days or seasons of weariness, or days where we feel discouraged or frustrated…but it does mean that all of those moments matter. And they matter to God. So be encouraged Mama-God does notice the work you are putting in and he wants to be a part of that journey. He desires to come alongside of us as we care for our homes, children, and husbands. And to help us, as we grow and learn. In turn, we are doing these tasks for him and for his glory. It doesn’t matter if the world doesn’t see it as important, because it’s the most important task you can be doing right now.

Colossians 3:17  “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”