This excerpt from A Chance to Die (Elisabeth Elliot's biography of Amy Carmichael) was immensely encouraging to me and I don't even have kids! Really, it is to everyone, especially women, who often struggle with 'feelings' of inadequacy and insignificance.
The women of the Band were learning that if the Lord of Glory took a towel and knelt on the floor to wash the dusty feet of His disciples (the job of the lowest slave in an Eastern household), then no work,even the relentless and often messy routine of caring for squalling babies,is demeaning. To offer it up to the Lord of Glory transforms it into a holy task (emphasis added).
"Could it be right," Amy had asked, "to turn from so much that might be profit and become just nursemaids?"
The answer was yes. It is not the business of the servant to decide which work is great, which is small, which important or unimportant--he is not greater than his master.
"If by doing some work which the undiscerning consider 'not spiritual work' I can best serve others, and I inwardly rebel, thinking it is the spiritual for which I crave, when in truth it is the interesting and exciting, then I know nothing of Calvary love (emphasis added)," Amy wrote after many years of such "unspiritual" work.
Everything we do matters. It is either offered up as service to the Lord or it is done in a spirit of rebellion.
Changing dirty diapers matters. Doing laundry matters. Our speech matters. Slicing mortadella matters. Cutting hair matters. Taking exams matters.
It will all be either wood, hay, and stubble or gold, silver, and precious jewels.
The underlying foundation of everything we do is the cross. To perform 'menial' tasks in a worshipful, joyful, meaningful way, the cross must be central in our mind.
In Christ, there is not a single area of our lives that does not count for eternity. Now that brings excitement and purpose to our lives, doesn't it?!?!
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