Currently on my weekly podcasts (http://ARPoddy.buzzsprout.com) I am sharing about some beautiful Hebrew words that describe us in our homes. One is “naveh” which means “to be settled in the home, to make a lovely home or fold.”
I have been thinking more about the word “settled” this morning. Are you settled in your home?
Are you contented? We can’t always answer yes to these questions. We feel unsettled. Sometimes we even feel despised and debased. Often family members cause you to feel inferior and that you should be doing something greater with your life. Perhaps you are facing financial pressures and you feel the pull to take a job and make some money.
Dear mother, please be encouraged. You are right where God wants you to be. You have the highest career in the nation as you train the next generation; as you make a stable, loving, peaceful home for your children; as you daily fill them with God's Word; and as you prepare them for the destiny for which God has brought them into the world.
And there's more. Your career is an eternal one. You came naked into this world and naked you will go out, not taking anything with you, except your redeemed soul and the redeemed souls of your children, which are eternal. Others may pour their lives into careers outside the home which will all be left behind. You are pouring your life into lives that will live forever. You are doing an eternal work.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians telling them: "Therefore, my beloved brethren be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Motherhood is the "work of the Lord." It is God ordained. God has commissioned us for this task. Yes, I’ll admit, it is work. It's consistent work. It's hard work. It's never-giving-up work. But it will never be in vain. Read the promise again: "Your labor is not in vain in the Lord."
God also tells us that he wants us to be “steadfast” in our calling. This word means “to be settled." Other translations say: “strong in purpose,” “stand firm and steady,” and “stand your ground.”
The dictionary meaning for "settled" is to be "placed, established, fixed, composed, and adjusted." Not tossed to and fro and hankering after another lifestyle. You've come to terms with God and yourself, knowing that this is the life for which you were born. You know you are in the perfect will of God.
You understand there is more to motherhood than just loving your children. You actually LOVE motherhood. Every mother loves her children, but when you love the career of mothering, it makes all the difference in the world. Psalm 128:3 (TLB) is your testimony: "Your wife shall be contented in your home."
Be settled in your great calling today.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell