by leaps and bounds

You may be called to nations, but is your first ministry in order?

It has been spoken over me since I was a small child that I was different, set apart, and a fireball. That one day I would do great and mighty exploits for the Lord. Even the Lord showed me as a child that I would be traveling around one day. Of course, my life didn’t go as planned and I made many mistakes and detours along the way, along with great amounts of humbling and healing that needed accomplished.

I used to dream as a child that I would be a nurse who would go to foreign countries to minster to the less fortunate. But what I didn’t realize was the process it would take for me to actually get to that point in my life. One of them being the importance of being a wife and mother first and foremost. I’ll be honest- being a mom and wife didn’t actually come natural to me. I was still so broken when I first became a wife and mom and I messed up more times than I’d like to admit, but isn’t God so gracious in His mercy and grace towards us?

In fact, I was so broken and my vision so skewed on the importance of raising my household first, that I thought at one point going out to minister to others was more important than ministering to my own children. I was someone who didn’t love myself, I was selfish and entitled and I could not accurately love my household the way they deserved. I’m not here today to blabber on about how much I messed up, but to show you the growth and healing that occurs when you obey the Lord and allow Him to align things the way they should be in your life.

So my point is this: your family- your children and spouse if you have one, are actually your first nation that you are to go to and pour into. How can you effectively pour into other nations if you’ve yet to pour into and secure the foundation correctly in your own home? Your spouse and/or children are your FIRST ministry, no matter what. They will always come first because the Lord has an order of doing things.

The Lord had to teach me this and it hasn’t been easy. He called me away from my full time job to be a stay at home mother because I had so much growth and learning that needed to take place. My priorities were so backward and frankly they were selfish and prideful. I was forsaking being the best mom I could be in the name of “all other things”.

Our children are our legacy. They are the next generation of warriors for Christ. If we all raised Godly households, think about the generational change this would bring? Look at how different our society is these days. We are encouraged in the name of feminism to work full time jobs so that somebody else can raise and indoctrinate our children. Many women consider being a stay at home mom a bad thing. Do we not realize how sneaky the enemy is?? This was his plan all along. Satan wants us to think that the most important role the Lord has given women is a bad thing.

So here I sit proudly as a stay at home momma who has had to learn and un-learn many teachings, lessons, and mindsets that were unbiblical so that I could learn the proper order of things and what ministry really looks like. If the only ministry you have right now is within the four walls of your home, know that it’s truly the most important one after all.

Your household is the foundation of everything else. The health of your marriage and children will be the foundation of all other things in your life. So just remember that your household has to be in order if you truly want to be effective when you go to the rest of the nations. It matters that greatly to the Lord. Don’t let anyone put you down any longer because you’re “just” a stay at home mother… remind them it’s the greatest call and privilege any woman could have. It’s a gift from God after all. Raising kingdom kids is not for the weak or weary- it’s a badge of honor we women should proudly wear all hours of the day. Shine your light everywhere you go and show the enemy who has the victory in this fight!!!

Get your house in order first so that you can be effective when you go outside to the corners of the world for the sake of Christ! Do not despise small beginnings and begin to see the importance of your household role for what it is. This is legacy and for generations to come.

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