Seeking God’s Will as Working Moms
“Handoff go ok?” I read my husband’s text, then laid down my phone, unsure of how to respond. Yes, the kids were fine with the babysitter, but I wasn’t sure I was. Throughout the chaos of the morning, getting both kids ready and prepping the house, I had been counting down the minutes until I got to sit at my desk in peace and work. Now that I was here, however, I felt an aching emptiness. I missed my kids.
I heard their laughter in the other room, and I mourned the moments I was missing. Then, when they left the house to go to the park, I began to worry—What if they get hurt and I’m not there to comfort them? What if an important question comes up and I’m not there to answer it? And then, as most times I’m away from my kids, the guilt and doubt started settling in. I love my work and believe in what I’m doing, but should I be with my kids 24/7?
Perhaps you too have wrestled with the experience of work in motherhood. If so, I’d invite you to explore a passage of Scripture with me that provides a degree of comfort and clarity for this often complex and difficult topic.
All These Things
In Matthew 6, Jesus is preaching to a large crowd, and he turns to the topic of anxiety. “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life,” he says in Matthew 6:25. Jesus instructs his audience not to be overly concerned about their physical needs being met. Instead, he invites them to trust God to meet their needs: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26). Jesus reminds his audience of how little control humans actually have in life, setting us free from the illusion that the outcome of life is ultimately dependent upon us.
In the end, Jesus comforts his listeners: “Your heavenly Father knows [what] you need” (Matthew 6:32). And so, he concludes, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
Jesus was speaking to his audience specifically about the worries of physical provision, but his invitation covers the full spectrum of our anxieties. Will my child be okay without me while I work? Am I making the right decision with how I spend my time? In our worry, Jesus invites us to lift our eyes and focus on one thing: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.”
First Things First
What does it mean to seek God’s kingdom? One commentator defines it this way: “To find and do the will of God, to ally oneself totally with his purpose.”[1] When I’m anxious about matters surrounding work as a mom, I often find myself ruminating or comparing myself to others. Jesus, however, asks us to look up and focus on one thing: for God’s will to be done.
In its simplest form, God’s will can be summarized by Jesus’s words in Matthew 22:37-39: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all principle for work in motherhood. Every family, every mom, and every season is different. But I think what Jesus would have for us is to take our anxieties surrounding work and trade them for an opportunity to learn to seek God’s will:
To regularly be in God’s Word so that we come to know his heart and his values more fully.
To regularly make space for stillness and reflection so that we would grow in our capacity to listen for and discern the Holy Spirit’s leading.
To regularly ask God in prayer, “Lord, how would you have me working in a way that’s most honoring to you in this season?”
He Knows Our Needs
Jesus promises that when we seek after his kingdom—when we align ourselves with his will to love God and love others—everything else will be added to us. As Matthew 6 reminds us, God knows what we need. He knows the financial strain we feel in a difficult economy or our desire to provide a certain lifestyle for our kids. He knows the vocational longings we possess—he is, in fact, the one who designed and wired us. He knows the needs of our kids that determine their wellbeing. God knows what we need. As dearly loved children, we can trust that our Heavenly Father, in his sovereign knowledge, will provide everything we need while we seek first his kingdom.
As we navigate work as moms, Jesus asks us to put in second place our professional aspirations, our comparison to other moms, even our desire for our kids’ happiness. Our work and how we raise our kids are all aspects of who we are, well worth our time and attention (as Proverbs 31 reminds us). But what, ultimately, is most important? “A woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” (Proverbs 31:30). Let’s accept Jesus’s invitation to trade our anxieties for trust—to be God-fearing women who are defined not by our work status but instead, by our single-minded pursuit of his kingdom.
[1] David McWilliams, Galatians: A Mentor Commentary.
