Your motherhood is ministry.

Don’t let anybody tell you that motherhood isn’t ministry. Don’t let anyone tell you that you “just stay home.” Or belittle the holy work you are doing in raising your kids.

We are discipling a generation. We are the first line on the battlefield as we fight for a better tomorrow for future generations. We have the opportunity to break off shame with our words. To spur on hope with our actions and instill compassion as little eyes soak in the way we treat others. We get the weighty honor of helping to rewrite the story of division and hate that has plagued our country- a problem that is first solved in our homes, spills into our neighborhoods, pours out into our cities, and sends tidal waves of change out into the world. We get to model what it looks like to pull up more chairs at our tables, pray for those who hurt us, and dismantle the walls between us and our neighbors brick by brick. We get the responsibility of modeling humility as we apologize first and run the well beaten path to the foot of the cross. We have the immense honor of carrying a torch with confidence and showing our babies how to strike the match of faith to light their own beacon of light on fire.

Yes, there are diapers. Feedings. Teeth coming through that require bouncing. Food to be made seemingly around the clock. Homework to check over. And messes to tend to. There are school drop off lines and target runs. And squabbles between siblings that require our attention.

Our job never really clocks out. We wake at all hours of the night when our name is called out in the dark. We are bearers of peace to anxious minds as we pray over fears that wake them from their sleep. We utter bold prayers asking God to break off generational sin as we load the dishwasher. We speak life and hope as we bend low to wrap up a child in distress. We let heaven break through as we laugh and dance with a baby on our hip on the kitchen floor.

Our pulpits may look more like a kitchen island than a stage. But do not let the fact that it's dressed in the ordinary fool you. This is the ministry of motherhood. This is holy ground. Our everyday hallelujah. And there is no such thing as "just a mom."