Is the Kingdom Lifestyle at Work or at Home?
“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us” (Romans 8:18).
Editor’s note: This article is adapted from the author’s book The Glory to be Revealed in You: A Spiritual Companion to Pregnancy and is published here with permission.
As a mother, the choice between a career and full-time caregiving is not cut and dried. There are many more opportunities today for women to work and raise their children simultaneously. Often, two incomes are necessary to feed the family. Sometimes, one spouse can earn a living working from home, even while caring for children. Then again, some mothers find full-time homemaking more akin to a cross than a resurrection. There are just as many crosses working in an office as I ever found as a stay-at-home mother. I am convinced that God can be glorified in both the office and the home! The real key is to discern God’s will for you.
Our spiritual life cannot be separated from our “ordinary” daily life. It is worth asking yourself what you see when you gaze on the financial and career repercussions of an infant. Are you agonizing in the Garden of Gethsemane about your career goals and earning potential during the early years of motherhood? Are you jumping for joy before the empty tomb, seeing your pregnancy as a welcome resurrection to a new life away from the office? Somewhere in between? Neither? Only you can know for certain how the Passion informs your kingdom lifestyle.
Remember that the way of the cross is reenacted over and over again in the lives of Christ’s disciples. If you have more than one child, each baby may find you in a different place. The one constant is that God has already laid out His will for your life. If your decision contradicts His will, He will make it clear to you in some way or other. The sacrifice of following Christ to glorify God means being willing to bear the cross in order to enter into the resurrection. Sacrifice is an integral part of motherhood; finding meaning in that sacrifice is the means of spiritual growth. It is not that we choose the cross because it is the least tempting option. We choose the cross because we believe the path we have chosen is God’s unique plan for us.
Let love lead your decision-making. We can choose to embrace the sacrifices of motherhood, not out of a sense of guilt or self-immolation but because loving children includes hard work. The good news is that Christ’s victory over death is our inheritance as His disciples. The more crosses we are asked to carry, the more experience we have of the resurrection. The one constant is God’s love—God’s love that sustains us on the way of the cross and God’s love that delivers us from death to life. Over and over and over again.
Meditation for the Pregnant Mother
“To travel with Mother Teresa was to experience the presence of a person who was completely recollected. On one occasion we were driven at breakneck speed through the heart of Chicago to catch a plane. Patty Kump and I caught our breath as we made swift turns in traffic, barely grazing a taxi and shooting forward like a rocket as soon as the light changed to green. Mother Teresa’s countenance never changed; she sat calmly with her rosary beads in her hands, praying.”
(Eileen Egan, Prayertimes with Mother Teresa).
To be recollected is to be fully centered in God, trusting in His providence and even welcoming the crosses He offers us to bear with joy, in the full belief that the resurrection is at hand. This peaceful centeredness can be ours as well, if we are willing to relate everything in our lives to God and God’s plans for each of us, personally.
Pregnancy is an apt metaphor for the process of centering on God, because the growth of our faith implies our inevitable deliverance. The joy with which we anticipate this deliverance may be colored by anxiety over the demands of our infant devotion. The amazing transformation of faith will help you to take courage in the great grace that has brought you this far. Meditate on where you see your center this week. Ask God to show you ways of making your faith a more central aspect of your life.
Bible Verses for Additional Meditation
Psalm 119:105-112 and Philippians 4:4-7
Prayer of the Pregnant Mother
God, grant that I might view my life and all my actions with Your divine guidance. Let the fullness of my womb remind me of the abundant graces You continue to give me so that I can continue in faith. Amen.
Kristen West McGuire has worked as a research associate, an autism services aide, an executive director for a non-profit, an event planner, and even a chaplain at a mental institution! Today, she is a fundraising consultant and runs My Secret is Mine, a small Catholic press. Yes, it’s a little disjointed. But amid all the work, she and her husband raised eight wonderful children. To God be the glory!