It dawned on me a couple days ago that Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away! That means the most stressful time of the year for me - the time between Thanksgiving and the New Year - is fast approaching. When I was younger, Thanksgiving as well as other holidays used to stir up excitement and nostalgic emotions in anticipation of big family gatherings and subsequent feasts. However, since I’ve married and become a daughter-in-law in an ever-expanding family – 34 family members over four generations and still growing – this time of the year has traditionally been an anxious and stressful time for me. As much as I enjoy spending time with my family members, I do not look forward to the many hours of house cleaning, grocery shopping, cooking, gift buying, gift wrapping, more cooking, and more cleaning.
And it does not help that December is one of the busiest months of the year ministry-wise. With various Christmas and end of the year programs and services along with the Timothy Winter Retreat, I have to confess that I don’t feel as peaceful and joyful as I should. As special and important as each of these events is, it can definitely be a case of too much of a good thing. I consider it a privilege and honor to be a woman pastor, but during times like this, I find it really challenging to balance my time between fulfilling my role as a mother and a daughter-in-law and being a dedicated pastor.
I realize that this struggle, however, is not unique to me, but is shared by all working women who try to balance their time between their family and work. The age-old debate between stay-at-home mothers vs. working mothers is a very sensitive one. As a mother who’s always worked outside the home while my children were growing up, I have mixed feelings about the topic. I do not believe one option is necessarily better than the other. I’ve observed many mothers at our church over the years on both sides of the fence, but have not been able to form a definitive opinion on the heated debate. I can, however, say pretty comfortably, that a mother’s influence on her child does not proportionally correlate to the amount of time she spends with her child, her highest level of education, or her financial resources. Mothers who are able to exert their Godly influences the most, thereby helping build a solid foundation of faith that their children can build upon, are the ones who are confident about and content with being unconditionally loved by the King!
This will be the very first Thanksgiving that I will be celebrating without my mother since she passed away back in February. I miss her very much, and Thanksgiving dinner will never be the same without her. My mother was not well-educated or rich. She did not have any worldly accomplishments, and she was sick a lot throughout her life. By the world’s standards she did not have much to offer to her children. However, she knew who she was in Christ. She never pretended to be someone she was not or to have what she did not possess. She was confident about her salvation by grace through her faith in Jesus Christ and was thankful for the littlest things in life despite her struggles. Her attitude of thanksgiving and contentment in Christ left an indelible mark upon her children. I hope and pray to influence my children as much as my mother did. So as stressful as it is to be a married woman with children and a pastor during this busy season, I thank God that He created me to be a woman. I wouldn’t trade it for anything!
From Pastor Sara’s Heart
November 11, 2012