I’m not one of those moms who has everything down to a science.
Often lunches around my kitchen table with my five, three, and one-year-old look like this: the children are cranky from hunger, so I rush them to the table to eat. Once I get their cups filled, dish out and cut their food, provide ketchup/butter/whatever condiment is desired, I start to take a couple of bites from my plate. About this time, requests are being made for seconds and napkins, which I try to distribute without stepping on all the food baby has thrown on the floor. I sit down to eat again, but by this time, baby is finished eating and is whining to get out of his high chair.
I look hopelessly at the food on my plate while I get him all cleaned up and hope he might play happily while I eat. But then there is the question: should I eat first or finish cleaning up the avocado bites on the floor before others track it around the house, or should I start spot-treating the ketchup on Maranatha’s shirt?
After lunch is over, the dream is that I might be able to clean up, do the dishes, and prep for the next meal without having to break up too many sibling conflicts, but that is hit or miss depending on the day.
I know what I am describing is familiar to mommies worldwide, though I’m guessing most of you are more efficient than I am at staying on top of things with littles in the house. (I was relieved when Josiah told me, before we were married, that he likes having a little chaos in his life, haha!)
Being a mommy of little ones means a lot of menial serving. And I haven’t even begun to talk about the diaper blowouts, potty training, and house organization (none of which are my strength either, haha!)
One evening while pondering the many menial tasks of motherhood, I told my husband, “I think I’m going to try to meditate on Jesus’ nature of a servant when I am serving my family.”
About an hour later I turned on a Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth podcast and guess what it was on? It was a series of meditating on the person of Christ, and this particular episode was—guess what?—“His servanthood.” I took that as a thumbs up from the Lord!
Jesus’ servant nature is one of the most astonishing traits that He has. I think it will baffle us in Heaven that Jesus isn’t merely sitting on the Throne receiving praises but He is STILL serving! (As if coming to die on the cross for us wasn’t enough!!) He told us about this in Luke 12 when He said, “Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them.” (Luke 12:37)
I simply cannot get over this verse. It shows us that Jesus isn’t just serving because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s His amazing nature of love. He WANTS to serve. He LOVES to serve. Because He is love. I want to be like Him!!!
I also think of the model of a righteous woman given in 1 Timothy 5:10 which says this: “…having a reputation for good works; and if she has brought up children, if she has shown hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has assisted those in distress, and if she has devoted herself to every good work” (1 Timothy 5:10 NASB).
Notice it doesn’t say “If she has a meaningful career, large Instagram following, or prestigious position in a ministry.” Nope, rather, if she has (drumroll) … washed the saints’ feet.
I think that joyfully approaching the messes at home with our little ones is good practice for the broader ministry of “washing the saint’s feet.”
Now that the Lord has impressed this on me, I have something I can turn my thoughts to when I start feeling weary of all the serving: I meditate on Jesus’ love of serving and then I get a little tinge of joy that I’m becoming more like Him.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if our children developed not merely a “coerced performance of duties,” but a love of serving because they saw a love for it demonstrated by their mothers who find joy in imitating Jesus?
