*SPECIAL* Mother's Day Edition

My wife, Paige, is an excellent mother. She loses sleep for the sake of raising and nourishing our children. She loses free time for the sake of teaching and discipling our children. She loses her patience on occassion. She loses her pride and asks our children to forgive her in Christ.

My wife stays home with our 3 children (currently ages 3 1/2, 2, and 2 months). Her desire has always been to be a mother and a wife. She performs both like a person who has always wanted to do it. There is something about someone doing what they love and desire to do that makes it a sacred profession. In this particular scenario, that allusion could not be more accurately applied.

Mothering and homemaking are arts, skills, talents, professions, and sanctifying applications. Paul tells Timothy that women have a distincit role in the church body. Women are to raise their children and teach younger women to do the same. This may seem intuitively obvious, yet it has become more and more of a novelty. It is widely recognized that daycare providers are professionals (and highly paid ones at that). Yet it is not so recognized that the women raising their own children are professionals, or even working by most.  Often people reply, "Oh, you just stay at home." JUST. What a ridiculously loaded and misappropriated insertion into that retort.

My wife stays home in order to love our children, take care of our home, and fulfill her Biblical calling and ministry. She does so with grace and the mercy of God. It is not easy work and she does it well. I could not be more comforted in knowing that she is with our kids every moment of everyday. I could not trust anyone more with the task.  

It is a deeply meaningful ministry to me as a husband to have a wife at home preparing my children's meals, disciplining them in grace to see their need and God's provision of completion in Christ, decorating and making beautiful our home, and providing a stability and cadence to daily life. The home does not change as staff rolls over because my wife is committed to the task and those for whom the tasks are performed.

Today I honor my wife. Her profession is noble and she performs it honorably. It is not, however, simply the office she occuppies that makes her worthy of acknowledgement on this special day, but the grace by which she fulfills it.

Proverbs 31:28-31

28 Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: 29 “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” 30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. 31 Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

Lord,

Please bless my wife for all of her hard work. May her children rise up and call her blessed as they see more and more the efforts she places into honoring God and them in fulfilling her ministry as a woman of God in Christ. May she know deeply the appreciation I have for her and the gratitude to God I often am stirred to offer Him. Many women have done excellently, but Paige is my wife and I would choose her again over any I know. None is more suited to be my helpmate than her. May her works praise her at the gates of pearl as she is welcomed. Help her to know and love and cherish You God before all things. May her soul be stretched and her mind be calmed in Christ daily. May she know the value of hard work through the value of rest in Jesus. May she have the desires of her heart as You conform them more and more to replicate Your will. May she know You and be given faith upon faith to believe in Jesus only, Jesus solely, Jesus ever after always. Amen.

Charm and beauty are deceitful and vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is of the utmost quality.

My wife fears the Lord. My wife is also very charming and beautiful. So eat that world: you can't touch this!,  Todd=1, World=0,  and "Thank You," Jesus. I could not be more blessed.

Read her blog HERE.