Let me preface this blog with the fact that since I was very small I knew I wanted to be a stay at home mommy. I had a mom who stayed at home and thought this was the best possible situation. I always felt a peace at my home that I didn't with my friends with working moms. This is not to say my home was a peaceful place, but there was a "peaceful" atmosphere. Mom wasn't rushing us to and fro, sending us to a before school program or running us ragged with "things", I appreciate that. I felt a sense of security that I can't explain to you.
Now let me say, as I have grown to a wife and a mommy I look at motherhood differently. It is no longer just a convenient thing, something with status or because it was what I wanted to do. I now feel compelled to be at home, because it is my mission field. God has called me home, literally. I have found a couple other blogs that say what I wish I could say, so eloquently.
This is a wonderful article that can better describe how I see my position:
http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001697.cfm This sums it up:
"In considering that question, I found guidance in much of Scripture, but I remember finding it one place I didn't expect — in Matthew 15, the account of the Canaanite Woman whose daughter was possessed by demons. Desperately, the mother cries out for help from Jesus.
"It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs," Jesus tells her.
"Yes, Lord," she says, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."
Jesus commends her faith and heals her daughter.
Hardly a commentary on today's motherhood issues, huh? After all, Jesus is making the point that the gospel was to be given first to the Jews. But I was struck by two things. The first was the mother's tenacity to do what her daughter needed, no matter the cost. The second was Jesus' phrase: "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."
Jesus is talking about priorities. In His analogy, the child is understood unquestionably to be more important than the dog. The child gets the best and the first. That led me to question my own priorities. Would my child get the best and the first or would my job?
As a Christian, I knew that not only would my children be little human beings, they would be eternal souls. Their bodies would have physical needs. Their minds would have emotional and intellectual needs. But their souls would need much more: an introduction to our Lord and instruction in His Word."