Life: What is it for a Wife & Mother?

Life: What is it for a Wife & Mother?

What is life? Is it a biological definition about hearts, cells and oxygen? Is it a list of things to do composed at the end of the day for the following day? Is it duties, dreams, desires? And about what level of life are we talking? Is there a different level of life to be experienced depending on those daily tasks? If you are a wife and mother your definition of life may be defined by those in your life. The vocation of wife and mother is a most noble and honorable calling by God. But are we experiencing it at the surface level of stuff to do to keep life going, or embracing it at a deeper level with understanding of the choice we made? Keeping the laundry done, the groceries bought, the meals prepared, the kitchen clean, the diapers changed, the beds made, the floors swept, the bathrooms sanitary, the shirts pressed, the boo-boo's bandaged all the while making time for your hubby before you're exhausted, getting the dog groomed and giving time to each individual child can make a woman stop and wonder, is this life?? Is this what the vocation of marriage and parenting is all about? For a time, yes; yes it is. This is the service we have been called to do for our husband and for our children and mostly because God asked us to and we said yes. Were there times our Blessed Mother might have thought, "what the heck have I agreed to do?". Probably not, because she was without sin and did not question what God had asked her. But, like us, she made a choice. That choice then required her to be obedient and most of all trusting that God would not ask her to do something beyond her capabilities. So where does that leave us? We are not sinless, but we were given a choice. We chose. Now, like Mary, our lives are not our own. They are at the service of our husband and children and therefore, at the service of God. Our life has become something bigger than ourselves, than our dreams, our wants, our wishes, our fairy tales. We made a choice to except the plan God has for us in our vocations. At that time we gave Him our life to do with what He asks. For a time, this life might be difficult, dreary, mundane, frustrating. But isn't life a sequence of events happening for a greater purpose? Each load of laundry, dirty diaper, and dishwasher full of dishes is one step along the path of life God has planned for us that we chose when we, like Mary, said yes.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11.