Motherhood is My Calling

My main employment is being a photographer. The main way I spend my days is homeschooling and caring for my home. My calling is Motherhood. To be a mom to my four is children is far more important than any other work I will ever do.

When people ask what I do, I say I’m a photographer. This is new for me . For 15 years I answered that I was a homemaker and a home educator. It has taken five years of studying photography, and two years of owning a business before I got to the place where I could confidently answer “photographer” when asked about my job. It required me to overcome Imposter Syndrome. I felt that I had to be at a certain level in my business before I would even claim the title.

Part of my hang up is that I despise our society’s habit of asking what people do as if they can then size them up , and assign value based on what they do.

I also feel that while I love photography as an art form, it is not my calling. A calling is something that resonates deep within us. A calling is something that we were Made, Designed to do.

I read a book many years ago , entitled “Visions of Vocation.” In it I found this quote , “It is a simple Grace , really, to be trustworthy, to be known as someone who does good work, and will stand by his work.”

With that definition, then Motherhood is my work. I have labored at motherhood. And I stand by my work. Not because I’m the perfect mother ( far from it) but because being a good mom has been the central theme to my life. I’ve chosen to stay home , to home educate my children, to pour into them. I chose this precisely because I was I trusted with these four precious souls , and I want to honor that. I want to do right by them.

I want to do my very best for them, intentionally, on purpose.

In my younger years I often was looking for parenting formulas. Chasing the wind. Someone please tell me the Very Best Way to raise kids and I’ll implement it.

Unfortunately, what so many parenting experts neglect to tell us is that parenting comes down to love, empathy and trust. I guess these themes don’t sell parenting books and seminars very well.

But for us to be successful parents , we have to take the time to really see our children as they are , not our ideal or anyone else ideal of what a child should be.

Not even- and this is difficult sometimes- not even based on who they were in a previous season. We have to stay current with our kids.

As they grow and change they morph and evolve into new people, just as we do.

And it is time consuming work to make sure they have basic needs met and spiritual development, and a quality education and good relationships and healthy friendships, and not too much screen time. And and and.

It’s time consuming because it’s meant to be .

This is the Good work.

Parenting is the good work, the worthy sacrifice of your time, attention, needs, finances, emotional resources…

So what is a calling? It’s that thing you do that meets the deepest longings in your heart. For me, that is to nurture , to love well, to be a safe place for my kids, and often for other children as well.

It’s the easiest thing in parenting to just coast for a bit. we have all done it. We start out with ideals and great intentions, but we get tired , run down, burnt out.

We would do well to remind ourselves of those good intentions that we set out with.

My prayer is that I will make use of the time I have left with children in my home to pour into them, to look them in the eye and really listen to them.

Because at the end of my life, I will have accomplished some things. Hopefully I will have done some good work.

But Motherhood is my true calling. And I don’t want to miss a moment of it.