Categories: Motherhood

The 3 Daily Sacrifices of A Homemaker

This past week the word “sacrifice” has come to the forefront of my mind and my experience.

The first time I was confronted with it was during an evening that my husband and two of our children were away, and I was at home with our three youngest. I was greatly looking forward to an evening ‘alone.’ I had made a mental list of how I was going to spend my time partly catching up on some stuff I had to do, and partly on just doing something relaxing. It was going to be great!

I was running on schedule with serving the dinner a little earlier and putting the children to bed at a great time. It was lights out, and I was whistling a happy tune…. Until…

Sacrifices That Are Placed Upon You

Our four your old daughter started calling me from bed because she felt scared. I settled her down, prayed for her (again) and departed relieved. Then our seven year old son ventured out of bed, claiming to be thirsty. Water was provided, and I sat down naively believing that that was the last I would hear from my precious ones…

It wasn’t.

Little Miss Four woke Baby One Year Old “accidentally.” Once the baby was happy again, there was no way this bright eyed, bushy tailed miniature human was going to go back to sleep. You would have thought that 9pm was 9am the way she was carrying on gleefully… Between the three of them, suffice it to say that I was up and down, in and out, and round about till midnight! Midnight, people!!!

I felt deflated, discouraged, and discontent. I had wanted ‘Me’ time, and all I got was more ‘Mom’ time!

But wait a minute….

In situations like these, what if you and I considered it all joy to serve, train, and sacrifice for these little treasures that God has granted us. What if these sacrifices have been placed upon us unexpectedly to gently remind us to lay down our lives for the sake of our calling? For the sake of others… even miniature others?

At the end of my evening I exhaled exhausted. It was okay. The time had not been ‘wasted’ as I was tempted to think it had. It had been a privilege to sacrifice my own priorities, for my God-given priorities.

There will come a day, when all your sacrifices will be richly rewarded. Click To Tweet

We do it for Him. For Him.

Sacrifices That You Make By Choice

And then there are sacrifices that you make by choice. Those can be even harder. They go against the grain of our fleshly desires which demand to take centre stage in our lives.

Take yesterday for example. I had been out all morning. My husband called and told me about a travelling family whom he discovered were in town, and wondered if we could have them over for dinner. I was at home with our seven year old and baby. This would entail me having to sacrifice what I considered a well deserved restful afternoon doing some household basics, but also some feet-up basics in exchange for hard labour; putting up a five star meal for a dozen people, cleaning and tidying my house, caring for our children, and all within a three hour window.

I did what any good wife would do. I flatly said, “No.”

And that’s when God’s conviction virtually flew down in dove form and settled upon my heart swiftly. I needed to lay down my own preferences. My own visions of how ‘easily’ the rest of this day could flow. My responsibility was first and foremostly to my husband, to pleasing him and here it comes again, “laying down my life” for him…

So I did what any good wife would do. I called him back, and said “Okay, let’s do it!”

Somehow, by the grace of God, and solely with His help, I pulled it off despite all odds against me.

And do you know what? Rather than being bitter at this job I had to take, my heart was honestly filled with joy at the sacrifice God allowed me to choose to make!

Sacrifices That You Make For Yourself

Now, before you start thinking that I’m advocating never having downtime or doing anything for ourselves as mothers, think again.

Today… (I told you it’s been a crazy week!)… I had the invitation and opportunity to go out with my hubby and three of our children to a local funfair. I was getting myself dolled up, and realized that even though I would have a lovely time with my family…

Today I need to make a sacrifice for myself (and my own sanity) Click To Tweet

I declined the kind invitation, and sacrificed the time with my family for having several hours of alone time with God, myself, and my blog readers (that’s me writing this to you :-)).

You see, I’m realizing that often life is about making sacrifices. Sometimes those sacrifices are enforced upon you, and that’s O.K. That’s the Lord’s sovereign Hand at work. And sometimes those sacrifices come by our own choices. That’s okay too.

Our example is our Lord Jesus Himself, who laid down His own life, not by default, but by choice, so that we could have our sins forgiven and enjoy eternal life in the everlasting presence of the King of all Kings. If He made so great a sacrifice for you and for me, what’s a few sacrifices for others around us while on this earth?

Nothing less than a privilege. That’s what.

What keeps you from making sacrifices for others and what would help you to make sacrifices more joyfully from now on?

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Tehila is an Israeli, God-loving, husband-serving, child-nurturing mom of five sweet little ones whom she homeschools. She resides in beautiful New Zealand from where she blogs at Women Abiding – Encouraging women to abide in God and His Word.