Faithfulness
From GirlTalk:These days you'll find me at home changing diapers, picking up toys, helping Jack make pb&j's (I do the peanut butter and he does the jelly), wiping spit-up off my clothes - and, here's where it gets exciting - going to Wal-Mart to purchase more diapers. (Hot Tip: I've found the White Cloud brand to be the best of the cheapest.)
My home is a long way from the community college campus where I used to serve as a ministry intern on behalf of my church - sharing the gospel and discipling girls every day. It's a long way from the offices of Covenant Life Church where I organized women's meetings and retreats for hundreds. It's a very long way from Hungary and India where I traveled on short-term mission trips.
I love my life now, even if it doesn't always seem as "exciting" or "significant" as what I used to do. Maybe that's why this thought from John Piper - from his book The Roots of Endurance resonated with me:
"As I write this Preface I have just preached to my people several messages in which I pleaded with them to be 'coronary Christians,' not 'adrenal Christians.' Not that adrenaline is bad, I said; it gets me through lots of Sundays. But it lets you down on Mondays. The heart is another kind of friend. It just keeps on serving - very quietly, through good days and bad days, happy and sad, high and low, appreciated and unappreciated. It never says, 'I don’t like your attitude, Piper, I'm taking a day off.' It just keeps humbly lub-dubbing along. It endures the way adrenaline doesn't. Coronary Christians are like the heart in the causes they serve. Adrenal Christians are like adrenaline - a spurt of energy and then fatigue. What we need in the cause of... [motherhood] is not spurts of energy, but people who endure for the long haul. Marathoners, not sprinters."
Being a wife and mother - or doing any other long-term kingdom work - requires us to be "coronary Christians." It requires faithfulness even when we don't see the fruit. It requires joy in the mundane, unglamorous tasks. It calls for confidence that God will bless our gospel-motivated labors.
posted by Crystal Paine at 8:00 AM
7 Comments:
crystal,
i am a teenage girl and I've enjoyed reading your articles and your blog.
I have a question though.
I dont think I actually have an "authority". My mum is single, and my dad moved overseas when I was 10.
My mum wants me to go to uni and stuff. I think you call uni "college"?
So, my question is, how can I be a "keeper at home", when no one really want me to be?
This is an EXCELLENT post! Thanks for sharing it!
Have a great day in the Lord,
Carla
I use White Cloud diapers too, although the price has gone up lately, so I'm checking out Aldi's brand of diapers. Thanks for the reminder to be coronary!! The mundane to us is very important to that baby in the diaper whose bottom hurts, and to that little boy laying on the couch with a vomit-bowl "just in case." Thanks for the reminders!
Hmmm, interesting article. I never thought of it that way. Though I do think one can be both a "coronary Christian" and an "adrenaline Christian" at different times in one's life.
This really hits home, Crystal. I shared on my blog some of the daily work I do for my family: cleaning, organizing, cooking, the usual, not exciting, but necessary things, done with much love.
Someone wrote to me and told me how, if I really want to be a godly woman, I should stop polishing bathroom sinks and baking cookies, and instead go out and do something for poor needy children.
And this, I think, is precisely the 'adrenalin' attitude you mentioned.
While over the years I have been participating in many ways of giving to others (I'm not saying this to brag, just to clarify I'm not chained to the sink and stove!), I don't think any cause - no matter how good and right it seems in itself - can justify the neglect of one's own family. Those are the people God entrusted us with. We are responsible for them.
In response to the teen age girl and the question on authority. You DO have an authority and it is your mother (not sure how involved your dad is). I believe you need to be under and submitted to that authority. God will answer the desires of your heart if you seek Him. It is in the will of God that you would be a keeper at home I believe He will honor a heart that desires such a noble thing. However, I think that you must first remember to honor your mother and father, and remember that God has put this authority in your life to chisel you out into a ruby for Him. When the time comes for marriage, pray that He will send you someone with a vision for a Godly family. He can also do a work in the heart of your mother to catch this vision as well, byut it will begin with a life of obedience and submission to her authority, and in prayer. I know this may sound strange to tell you to go a uni if that is your moms desire, but like I said, God knows your heart and if it is pure and right before Him, he will always direct your paths. Even when we step out and do the noble things, if we are doing them with rebellion in our heart, it is not pleasing to our Heavenly Father. That is just my advice!
I love this concept since the hype doesn't last or make an impression on others as much as the long-term, faithful service does. Sometimes it can be discouraging to do nothing all day but discipline and clean up sticky floor and high chairs but we are making an eternal difference!
*John Piper is the greatest preacher alive in my humble opinion!
Mrs. Jo
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