My Greatest Gift to my Children

As a child, I was raised in a home where athletics and education were the top priority. I was taught to be a liberal atheist and a feminist. As a young woman, I firmly believed that a family was a hindrance to being successful. My goal was to get a degree, never marry, and NEVER have children. God had a different plan!

In 2004 (the year after I graduated from college), God saved me! I was saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and became a new creation (Ephesians 2:8-10 and 2 Corinthians 5:17). I was born again into God’s family in June, married in October, and became pregnant with my first set of twins on my honeymoon! Needless to say, it was a life changing year!

My husband and I decided we would raise our children and not send them daycare. One of us would always stay home. Then it came time to decide who would continue working. My income was twice the income of my husband’s. Therefore it made good financial sense for me to stay at work and for him to come home and take care of the children.

However, we soon realized after reading God’s Word that God’s plan for the family was very different from what we had chosen. It was unnatural for my husband to care for the babies that I was supposed to be nursing. It was also unnatural for me to be the breadwinner of our home. God’s natural order of the man being the head of the home and the wife submitting to him was not the order which we had chosen for ourselves (Ephesians 5:22-33). But it was time to make a change.

We began the transition of my coming home when we both did part-time work after our third child was born. However, we soon realized that this was not good enough either.

It was not long before I was pregnant with our second set of twins. I needed to be home full-time, and we finally gave up my income! Trusting God in this area of our lives was one of the best decisions we have ever made! Even though my husband’s income was lower than we were used to, God provided in mighty ways.

For many years now, my husband has been the provider and I have been the nurturer of our home. I have the great privilege of staying home full-time and homeschooling our five precious children. God has blessed our obedience. My husband and I have never gone without. Our children have never gone without. On the contrary, we are more content than ever! My husband has a wife to help him and my children have a mother at home to teach them. It’s the greatest gift I can give my family... to be home!

TISH KLEINDIENST
Powder Springs, Georgia, USA
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Printed in Above Rubies #92