My primary calling...

I came across this quote on a friends blog today:

"You must regard parenting as one of your most important tasks

while you have your children at home. This is your calling...

There is nothing more important. You have only a brief season

of life to invest yourself in this task. You have only one opportunity

to do it. You cannot go back and do it over. 

You live in a culture in which there are opportunities 

for you to do things unheard of in history. You are presented

daily with scores of opportunities. This is more than you

could ever do. But to do this job of parenting well,

it must be a primary task. It is your primary calling."

Paul Tripp

I've been thinking about this quote a good bit today. I think intellectually I would whole heartedly agree that being a Mom to my girls is one of my primary callings in life (next to being a wife to Joe!). But it is so helpful for me to take a good hard look at my life and consider where I am spending my time and energies. I am so easily distracted by things that are good, but are secondary to me being a Mom to my girls. They are only in our home for such a brief season, and I want to invest into them with all my heart. They are two little souls that need a Saviour desperately, and while I cannot save them, I want to do all I can to point their gaze to the one who can. They are two little girls who need to be loved, nurtured and trained up in the Lord. And honestly, to do all those things well, it consumes most of my time! While I LOVE being with my little sweeties, I know my heart is prone to fill up my time with things that I enjoy, or things that in my pride I simply want to better myself in, things that in themselves are good, but may crowd out time that would be better spent on my girls. There are many things that God has called me to do in life, but I want to make sure my best and most focused energies are on Joe and my girls. Like Paul Tripp said, I only have one opportunity with our girls, I cannot go back and do it over. I need the Lords grace to keep my eyes on what matters most!