By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
I discuss the significance of motherhood within a Christian context, emphasizing its value as a career choice and a blessing. I mention influential mothers in history who impacted their children spiritually. The message underscores the responsibility of parents to teach their children about faith and virtue in today’s world. I promote and encourage Biblical parenting.
Continue reading “The Value of Staying Home: Embracing Motherhood”By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
In this essay I reflect on the complexities of motherhood, highlighting both the ideal, and the painful realities some experience, particularly with non-believing mothers whose beliefs contradict their actions. Sunny Shell offers compassion and encouragement, while Dayspring McLeod discusses biblical infertility, emphasizing it as a chance for God’s transformative work, urging faith amid challenges.
Continue reading “Two Mother’s Day essays for those women struggling with Mother’s Day”By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
Christian mothers profoundly influence their children’s faith, as illustrated by Charles Spurgeon’s and Frank Boreham’s experiences. Spurgeon’s mother nurtured him, awakening his devotion to Christ, while Boreham cherished his mother’s storytelling and teachings. Their lasting legacies highlight the vital role mothers play in shaping spirituality and faith across generations.
Continue reading “The Impact of Christian Mothers on Faith”By Elizabeth Prata
Lori Alexander is known by her handle The Transformed Wife. Her TwitterX handle is godlywomanhood. She maintains many social media accounts for the express purpose, she says, of teaching women to be keepers at home, as per Titus 2:3-5.
On October 21, 2024, Lori The Transformed Wife, @godlywomanhood wrote-
This is for any of you who think my life is no different than the popular female preachers, influencers, book writers, speakers, and podcasters. I am home full time and always available for my family. I never travel. I’ve never given a speech anywhere. I stopped doing interviews. I donate all the money from my books to a pro-life organization. I just write or do a short video when something comes to mind. I mentor many women privately and on my social media sites in the ways of biblical womanhood as God commands. I stay within the boundary God has given to me to teach in Titus 2:3-5. I am a keeper at home as God commands. 3:06 PM Oct 21, 2024
I am glad she noticed the apparent contradiction of her constant shaming of women who work outside the home compared to her constant work for her ‘ministry’ inside her home. By my count she is on Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Facebook Private group, Pinterest, TikTok her blog, Instagram, and who know what else. Constantly. These are not dormant platforms. Lori is active. She creates a LOT of content almost every day. She not only works at creating content but manages donations and royalties from her published books, so, she is also working with her finances, too. She is busy.
As I say so often, don’t look at only what these women say, look at what they do. In her defensive posting, Lori unwittingly admits to blogging, authoring, mentoring, youtubing, responding to contacts, interviewing, and managing her finances. Just because she does it at home instead of an office does not negate the fact that she is extremely busy with her work. Anyone seeing the excessive abundance of her output would note the same. She is deluding herself.
I noticed this kind of self-delusion (or outright lie) in an early Beth Moore blog essay. I had read in a 2010 Christianity Today article, where the interviewer of Beth Moore had stated,
“…she insists on maintaining a regular schedule, traveling every other Friday night and coming home the next night. “We walk the dogs together and eat out together all the time and lie on the floor with pillows and watch TV,” Moore says. “My man demanded attention and he got it, and my man demanded a normal home life and he got it.”
No. The maths ain’t mathing. A normal life? Hardly.
I had already noted that year Moore’s heavy travel schedule at the time, her mention of spending 2 weeks secluded in a cabin in Wyoming to write her book, her book tours, her speaking engagements apart from Living Proof, her TV appearances, her IRS tax-return statement that she worked 50 hours per week at her office in Houston. She was busy. What Moore was claiming and what she was actually doing did not match up.
Is she deluding herself? Is she deceiving others? Both.
I noticed the same with Diana Stone. When Diana Stone was writing for She Reads Truth, we read in Diana Stone’s bio that, “You can find her in the mornings with a cup of coffee and her Bible flung open, preparing for the day ahead.” And “With a sweet daughter in tow, Diana clings to God’s Word daily.“
It turns out that Mrs. Stone relaxes with the Bible “flung open” … after she dropped her daughter to daycare. At the time of that writing, in 2014, the couple had employed a part time nanny to care for their daughter in their home so Mrs. Stone could work as a freelance writer. After bumping along with several nannies, (likely not a fun time for the children with personnel coming and going) they put their child in daycare so Mrs. Stone could continue to write at home. So yes, she was at home…while a day care worker took care of her kid. What she tells the public and what is actually going on did not match up.
It was the same with so many others such as Priscilla Shirer, Joanna Gaines, Jackie Hill Perry… If a Christian mother chooses a career and also has children, one or the other, or both, will suffer. No matter how they try to spin it.
It is impossible for a woman to claim undivided attention for the children at home AND have an outside the house career, especially when it’s evident by reading their blogs, seeing their speaking schedules, and just having common sense to see their lifestyle. These women on the speaking circuit are either deluding themselves or their audience, or both. But the main problem is the hypocrisy of saying you live godly as a wife and mom but living your career too.
If a woman and her husband decide she needs to work outside the home, there may be good reasons for that to which the outsider is not privy. Sheerah in the Bible was “a builder.” Rachel was a shepherdess. Deborah was a wife but also a Judge. Lydia ran a business of selling purple but also had her own household. There ARE examples of women in the Bible who worked.
But if she is a mother, yes, then her first priority should be the children. John Mark was blessed with a mom and a grandma who raised him in the admonition of the Law. Don’t be fooled by mothers who have young children at home who try to talk the talk about being totally oriented to the home all the while living a different lifestyle away from the home. We aren’t dumb. We see you.
If you have to work, so be it. There may be good reasons. On the flip side, if you’re ashamed of being a stay at home mom, realize it is a magnificent thing. The point is, there is no room for self-deception and no call to deceive others…unless that is the intent.
By Elizabeth Prata
Nothing seems more homey than coming into the house and smelling the good smells coming from the kitchen. It’s a warm and comfy feeling to see mom in the kitchen cooking dinner. You feel secure, happy, and at peace. All is right with the world.
My mom was famous for her mashed potatoes. She was among the early ones in our neighborhood to experiment along with Julia Child. Her Pork Loin was noted. My siblings loved her hamburgers and meat loaf. There were a host of other kitchen goodies we ate at home that our mother cooked for us from scratch.
I bet you stopped right now and thought of your mom’s special dish that you loved so much!
I laughed when Michelle Lesley tweeted that her kids asked for chili for supper…only thing is…it was barely out of August….they live in Louisiana … and it was over 100 degrees outside. She tweeted later, “I love my kids, so I made the chili anyway.”
Do you remember asking begging mom for her ____ fill in the blank there. Mom’s homemade cooking is just home.
It is therefore a sadness to me when I see celebrity Christian mothers who neglect their children for the sake of their chosen competing ministry. Moms who don’t have to work outside the home, or are working outside the home even more than career single secular moms in order to build their ministry brand, or to go on a book tour, or to take a social justice trip, and leave their kids behind is just too regrettable.
Jennifer Foster, wife of Pastor Jeremy Foster, co-pastors of America’s fastest-growing church, Hope City Church in Houston. She and her husband Jeremy have 5 children. She said the following in a written interview:
Interview Question: With a large (and growing) family, how do you personally make sure that you’re not taking on too much?
Jennifer: Practical stuff like date nights are crucial. Our family comes together around the dinner table every day (even if it’s take out, which it usually is). 😊 The last thing I’ll say on this is that I believe we have our priorities right. It’s Jesus at the center and then we build out from there, our marriage, our kids and then our church.
Jesus is not at the center when a wife believes she is a pastor, and when her ministerial duties take her away from the home to the extent that she says that hers does, and when time with the children has to be scheduled around a bucket of takeout. A mom’s ministry IS the children.
Yet sadly, this model of a family lifestyle of Christian moms is continually presented as normal no thanks to secular AND Christian media sources. Their subtle feminist message is, celebrity minister moms working outside the home is OK, as long as you claim to love Jesus and call it ministry.
Beth Moore of Living Proof Ministries, interviewed by The Atlantic Magazine noted the same:
Privately, however, Moore has never cared much for the delicate norms of Christian femininity. Her days are tightly scheduled and obsessively focused on writing. She spends hours alone in an office decorated with a Bible verse written in a swirling font (“I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven,” Luke 7:47). Though she often performs domestic femininity for her audience, in her own life she has balanced motherhood with demanding professional ambitions. She traveled every other weekend while her two daughters were growing up—they told me they ate a lot of takeout.
‘Mom is gone on another book tour, how about some KFC, kids?’ Does that sound as homey to a five-year-old as it could be? Being present with and for the children and husband should be the mom’s ‘obsession,’ or at least, acceptance of a gift and a role given by God as best for the family.
Raechael Myers, founder of the IF: Gathering gushed in an Instagram post (in 2014),
My husband just texted me this photo of the kids watching our @shereadstruth interview at the @ifgathering. Seeing my baby girl perched on the table watching her mommy talk about her Jesus- so blessed!!!! #SheReadsTruth #ifgathering
Yes, because that’s how to minister to your children, leaving your husband at home to do the mommying, and texting about your kids watching mom through a screen.
Many of these celebrity ministering moms, and there do seem to be many of them, if criticized, refer to Proverbs 31 as their basis for doing what they do.
Proverbs 31 is by King Lemuel, from an oracle his mother taught him. This part of the proverb extols the virtues of an excellent wife and mother, as the husband’s confidence in her increases (Proverbs 31:11). She works very hard and carefully provides for her household and those within it.
But rather than interpreting the salient portion of the Proverb as understanding the value and godliness of a wife and mother who devotes herself in a large sphere to her ministry-home and hearth, they take it to mean that a wife can and should be entrepreneurial outside the home, even if her merchandising competes with it.
–She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. (Proverbs 31:16)
–She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant. (Proverbs 31:24)
Yet,
While dad is the leader in the house, mother sets the tone. The hours her children spend in her presence will have a lasting influence on their lives. They will become largely what she makes them. She faces the noble challenge of molding their young lives for eternity. Motherhood is one of life’s highest honors, and one of its heaviest responsibilities. The Majesty of Motherhood
God gives the woman a husband and opens her womb to bear children. When He chooses to bless the wife with progeny, it changes the dynamic and the lifestyle of the woman. The mother alters her orientation now toward the home, almost exclusively.
Can anyone serve two masters? (Matthew 6:24). Are there two masters in the home? Two co-authorities? As in the worse case scenario of couples like the Fosters, co-pastors?
Now, please don’t misunderstand me. I am not opposed to mothers who need to work outside the home, or where the husband-and-wife have made considered and biblical decisions for her to do so. Normally, a mother’s primary orientation however, is supposed to be toward the home. The Proverbs verses, especially the two I’d shared above, demonstrate a wife & mother’s thoughtful consideration of how to personally, emotionally, and financially invest in her family, not sacrifice her family for her own ministry or career.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not judging buying takeout. Who doesn’t like an occasional pizza on a Friday night? Who doesn’t like some takeout for the Big Game? Takeout is not bad in and of itself. Not at all.
I know that there are sincere and loving stay-at-home mothers relying on takeout simply because the children are over-scheduled and it’s easier to grab a burger at the drive-thru on the way to the game/practice/rehearsal/dance/piano/voice lessons…
But, when takeout as opposed to a nourishing homemade dinner cooked with love is the consistent default, then becomes a symbol of something wrong in the home.
Nevertheless, Proverbs 31 is a high model of a devoted wife and mother. Her job is not easy and it is often thankless, for a while. How wonderful it is when the mother cooks dinner and settles in to read to her kids and tuck them into bed at night, she sets the tone of security, love, and warmth that will last them a lifetime. When her children grow up she will have provided them a model of enduring ministry that will last them a lifetime, and then they will thank her by caring for their own children the same way. When she meets Christ, she will earn His accolade for a well done service of a good and faithful servant.
What Does the Bible Say about Motherhood?
What it means to be your husband’s crown
the-end-time.org 