impacting your kids

You might not feel like shopping for groceries, breaking up sibling squabbles, and planning tonight’s dinner for your husband and kids is changing the world.

And no… unless you post about all those things on social media, most of the world won’t know about them!

But just because the world doesn’t know, that doesn’t mean the world won’t eventually be changed. Your faithfulness matters.

Sure, you’ve read that your job is important before. You’ve heard it in church, maybe, or read a book or blog that reminded you that your family is counting on you and it’s not all in vain.  But even if you’ve heard it before, it bears repeating. (After all, you’ve heard a few other things over and over again… “Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!” or “Eeew! Why do we have to eat this?”)

So hear goes:

Mom, you are irreplaceable. God chose you especially for your kids.

You aren’t perfect. (Neither is that other mom you keep comparing yourself to.) But your kids need to see you live, mess up, repent, accept God’s grace, and press on through His Spirit’s strength.

They’re watching you.

In his diary, in 1778, John Adams wrote, “The foundation of national morality is laid in private families…”

Every nation is a compilation of families. When families follow Jesus, their nation can’t help but be impacted. When moms and dads follow Jesus, their kids can’t help but be influenced.

As parents, we have a choice. We can merely shake our heads (or bury our heads) at the condition of national morality, or we can faithfully lay the foundation in our own home… today, as we shop for groceries, break up fights, and cook.

Here are a few ways we can continue laying the foundation for our families and our nation every day…

1. Through our time spent with Jesus.

Do we treat our faith in Christ as a checklist? Go to church. Serve in the nursery. Pray before meals. 

Or do we live out a relationship? Hungering for God’s Word. Teaching our kids to take their cares and concerns to Him in prayer throughout the day. Seeking His will rather than our own desires.

2. Through our relationship with our husbands.

Are we loving and respectful? Do we honor him with our words, decisions, attitudes? Are we faithful, even emotionally?

Or for single moms, are we honoring God and providing a positive example of how to relate to men? Showing our children God’s design of purity, mutual respect, and high standards?

3. Through teaching absolute truth to our kids.

The world we live in wants to call truth relative. And the notion that right and wrong no longer exist bombards us at every turn.

Are we opening God’s Word with our kids? Sharing Jesus’ teaching? Helping them think clearly and wisely? Modeling how to speak truth in love like Jesus did?

There are countless ways we impact our families; shape our kids’ lives; influence future generations. It can all feel so small, mundane, and, if we’re honest, even worthless so much of the time. Yet that’s the only way true character will be modeled, taught, and absorbed.

Foundations for families, foundations for nations are laid in the home, one grace and truth-filled moment after another.

So today, Mom, you are changing the world. Thank you for your faithful service to your family, your nation and your God.