Bloom Where You're Planted

Motherhood is no easy task. There are huge joys and excitement and then there are days of exasperation and disappointment. I wouldn’t say that I was a career woman before we decided to have kids; I just know that I really enjoyed my job and truly tried to excel. My husband and I had decided that whenever the Lord gave us children I would quit my job and stay home. I truly looked forward to that day. Little did I know that month-end deadlines would turn into trying to looking decent and tidy house before Daddy gets home. My stack of folders I tried to remove from my desk was replaced with baskets and baskets of laundry. Long, boring meeting became lesson plans. This was my life.

God is showing me “Bloom where you are planted, Amanda!!” Right now, I am planted smack dab in the middle of motherhood. Though there are times of feast and famine in the Wagner home, my duties are to raise moral, truth-seeking, God-loving children. What am I doing with this short time I have with them? I have only 7 years of influence left in my son’s life. While I write that my heart skips a beat! I realize that I missed his first 6 years of life-therefore my husband and I will have only 12 years! Lord, help me use the most of these precious years to have my children planted firmly in their faith and sold-out to You alone.

This is will be my greatest accomplishment-raising my children. I need to put all my brainpower, perseverance, and patience into this HUGE opportunity, the same way I would at a promotion at a job. Granted motherhood is a thankless job, but isn’t that also the description of a true servant? Completely self-less, not looking for a pat on the back, concerned for other’s needs before my own.

“Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”