Let Freedom Ring. Freedom isn't free. Freedom to obey. On the other side of fear lies Freedom. Freedom means I can do what I want, that I can spend my life as I will. "Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." George Orwell. Freedom is being you without anyone's permission. Freedom is a state of mind. America is saturated with ideas of Freedom. Freedom is what we think we want, even if we can't agree on what it means.
Mothers have the true 24/7 jobs. Our kids are in our minds in nearly everything we do. We don't really have vacations since either the vacation is with the family or we wonder what's going on at home if we are so fortunate as to have a girls' weekend. The job of mother doesn't stop after an 8 hour day. Even when we sleep, we have every chance of being awakened in the middle of the night. We get little instant, or even soon, gratification or results of our work. Being a mother requires surrendering one's own personal freedom for the sake of others.
The older Jewish Exiles who were deported to Babylon after Jerusalem's fall knew they most likely would not see their homeland again. Perhaps only their grandchildren would. They had to make a choice as to how they would respond. Would they "grow in bitterness toward God or see the bigger, eternal picture?" (Treasures in Darkness, Sharon Betters) The eternal picture. What is the eternal picture? How do we as wives, mothers, and women live with a view of the eternal picture. To see the eternal picture is to understand that our "legacy for the next generation [is] more important than [our] personal freedom." (Treasures in Darkness, Sharon Betters)
Our legacy: what do we leave our children? Do we leave them with the belief that they or God is the center of the universe? Do we show that we believe that our lives are "a platform designed by God for the purpose of glorifying him?" (Treasures in Darkness, Sharon Betters) What is the Freedom we are showing them?
If you are anything like me, you don't like your schedule interrupted or the time you consider your own taken from you for other things. But what I really want to show my children is that the ability to do what I want when I want is not as important as living for others. I want my legacy to my children to be that their mother served God, whether it was cleaning toilets, reading books, teaching them, or paid work. I want my legacy to be that I didn't need instant results or rewards but that I left the results and rewards to God. I want to show them an unselfish spirit, a spirit that knows that true Freedom is doing what brings glory to God.
No comments:
Post a Comment