Entry No. 03: The School of Motherhood

by Shela Ervin

After I graduated from seminary a few years ago, I was nearly certain that I would not go back to school. That chapter of my life had been completed, and I was ready to apply the truths and principles I had learned in real life living.

 

But God, in his wisdom, has enrolled me in another school of learning. It had yet to be revealed to me when I began mothering, that I was in need of much additional training - training required for the holy job at hand.

 

As with any work, training is required. But when the job does not involve clocking in or out, and when it requires the giving of body, mind, and soul, job training inevitably conditions and forms the whole person - the whole mother.

 

Here is some of what the job requires:

  • A sober understanding of God-ordained roles, and an unapologetic delight in them

  • Ability to respond to children’s cues, moment by moment, with compassion and concern

  • Diligence to correct, reprove, and restore when sinful conflicts arise

  • Acumen to train children in the goodness, truth, and beauty of God

  • Vision for the home and the stewardship of it for life and Christian hospitality

  • Organization of the physical assets and processes inside the home

  • Innovation to respond and adjust to increasing complexities

  • Resourcefulness to multiply what God has given to generate more value

  • Relational skills to establish trust, loyalty, and family bond over changing seasons

  • Collaborative ability to partner with the head of the home with respect

  • Emotional self-control to respond with wisdom and grace in difficult circumstances

  • Discernment to understand when and what to speak

  • Readiness to repent openly and immediately for sin

  • Prayerful dependence upon God for the lives stewarded in the home

  • Humility to hold all things openly for the sovereign will and use of God

 

Who is qualified for these things?

 

The call to mother is the call to good works for the sake of Christ. It calls upon every faculty of the woman, and in its glorious design, produces in each one great depth of maturity and fortitude. It is a master class intended to strengthen self-control, train in skillsets, season the use of words, and establish the woman toward growth in true godliness.

 

I am a young mother, recently enrolled in the School of Motherhood. I am being tried, tested, exposed, and trained up in every way. I am a student in this school, and it is a privilege I will not forsake.

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