Motherhood: Calling, career or ministry?

As stay-at-home mothers increasingly become the exception, some women are interpreting Paul’s Titus 2:5 prescription for women to serve as homemakers as a call to ministry.

In honor of Mother’s, the TEXAN asked several women to weigh in on the role of motherhood as a calling, career or ministry.

Jenna Lorick said she believes motherhood is all three. Lorick is the mother of four children, ages 16 months to 8 years, the youngest of which joined their family through adoption.

“Just the other day I was talking with my boys about going to college someday,” Lorick said. “They asked why college was important, and I told them that it is hard to get a job without going to college.  They all wanted to know if I had been. When I told them ‘yes,’ they were quick to ask why I didn’t have a job!

“With a smile I reminded them that I do have a job. My job for now is to take care of them and our home. I did spend a few years working outside of the home when we only had two children, and let me just say, it was like having two careers.”

But Lorick, wife of SBTC Evangelism Director Nathan Lorick, said that motherhood is also a calling—otherwise she’d be tempted to give up on difficult days.

“Motherhood is full of some wonderful moments, but it is also full of a lot of mundane moments … never-ending laundry, disciplining and redirection over the same offense countless times in a single day … It is easy to get discouraged without the reminder that God has called me to be the mother of these four little ones. He has entrusted them to me for a short time and on the days when I don’t feel up to that calling, he reminds me that he is the God who equips those he calls.”

A ministry of prayer
Above all, Lorick views motherhood as a ministry. “I see my sweet little crew as my Jerusalem. The first and foremost place that I am to be a witness for my Savior is in my own home with my family.”

Lorick said one of her favorite ministries as a mother is the ministry of prayer.

“I have the privilege of lifting up my little crew to the Father at any time for any reason,” she said, adding that she loves to pray Psalm 86:11-12 for them. “It is my prayer that my children will serve him and praise him with hearts that are not divided, hearts that are totally his.”

A few summers ago, Lorick said she began praying for her oldest son’s salvation. A few weeks after she began intentionally praying, he made a profession of faith.  

“I know that the majority of the prayers I pray for my children will not be answered this quickly and there will be some that I may never see answered in my lifetime, but I do know that I serve a God who hears the prayers of his people.”

A ministry of teaching & evangelism
Eleven years ago, Nivedita Burris left India to move to the United States. Educated as a civil engineer and pursuing a career in information technology, Burris never imagined herself as a homemaker. Today, she is a stay-at-home mother of two (ages 6 and 4) by day, and international food blogger by night. 

“I view motherhood primarily as ministry which blossomed from a calling,” said Burris, a member of a church plant in Boerne called Currey Creek Baptist Church.

“Before I became a mother, I was very career-focused.  I had worked hard to go from a small-town Indian girl to stand independent, doing a job that I wanted, in the country I’d always dreamed of living in. I didn’t want to give up my career so easily,” she told the TEXAN, noting that her perspective changed at the birth of her daughter.

“Being a mother is a beautiful blessing,” Burris said, adding that before she came to Christ the hardships of Indian women often veiled the significance of motherhood for her.

“After reading the stories of Sarah, Rebekah, Hannah and Elizabeth in the Bible, I realized that all these women were grieving for the lack of offspring. Having a child was not only a blessing to them but it brought a blessing to the world,” she explained. “Ruth’s obedience changed the world; she continues to inspire me. I believe that motherhood … can be the conduit to bless many beyond yourself.”

Burris said she hopes that her main ministry of motherhood is to teach her children to bless others—primarily by instilling in them obedience to the Great Commission.

“Having a birth family in India who still awaits the grace of Christ, the call of the Great Commission is personal to me. Living thousands of miles away from them, it gives a new meaning to heart connection,” Burris said. “I use technology to keep up with my family in India. When our kids Skype with their grandparents on the other side of the world, I use that experience and visual to tell them that God gave us the gospel to bring his family together from around the world.”

In her own home, Burris connects the ministry of homemaking with the gospel through cooking. Her blog, handfulofjoy.com, teaches mothers how they can inspire a love for missions in their children by cooking global cuisine and then praying for missionaries in those regions.

“Moms are in a unique and advantageous position to be an ambassador of Christ,” Burris said. “Something as simple as a play date or sharing a meal together presents the opportunity of discipleship and a deeper relationship with another person. Our children can be a witness to Christ in their everyday walk of life.”

A ministry of preparation
When her husband died at 42, Karen Collett discovered nothing can prepare a mother for losing a husband and parenting partner. As a widowed mother of three, Collett was forced to step into new and unfamiliar roles.

“Losing a spouse did hit hard, and I felt it impacted my ministry. Maybe the right word is it changed my ministry as a mother,” said Collett, who serves as women’s auxiliary coordinator at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. “When Dana died, I felt the weight alone of what I used to share with my hubby.

“Having family time and prayer time went straight to the forefront. My ministry during this time was to make sure the girls knew the Lord was in charge. He had a plan—we needed to follow.”

Above all, Collett believes motherhood is a ministry of preparing children for kingdom work.

“I believe God’s purpose for our lives is to bring others to him. Our lives, our actions, our thoughts, our hearts—all need to point to Jesus,” she said, reflecting on her now-grown children and her five grandchildren. “I felt my role was to develop my girls for kingdom work. My hope is that we gave them consistent love and values that shared how important they were to us—true gifts from the Lord.

“Our goal was to teach them to relate to others, to love others, to respect others, to love Jesus—all with love and strength given to them by the Lord.”

Today, Collett said the blessings of preparing her children for kingdom work include watching her daughters manage their own homes and raise her grandchildren.

“All three daughters have warm homes, and they love opening their homes to others. I love seeing their gifts of hospitality. Watching my daughters’ families develop and grow makes me realize how important my role is to pray for them, to encourage them. It makes a difference.”

A ministry of sacrifice
Jessalyn Hutto, writer and mother of three boys ages 4 down to 4 months, believes motherhood is both a ministry and a calling.

“I view motherhood primarily as a calling in that it is the Lord who blesses the womb and gives the gift of children to those he chooses. This doesn’t mean I am naturally gifted with the character qualities necessary for effective mothering, or that I have the abundance of resources needed for the task but rather that the Lord, through his infinite wisdom, has called me to care for the children he has entrusted to my husband and me,” said Hutto, who founded the website DesiringVirtue.com to help women apply Scripture to everyday life. 

As a contributor to Karis, the newly formed women’s channel of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood website (cbmw.org) Hutto said motherhood is above all a ministry of sacrifice.

“I see my calling as a mother to be a ministry in two different ways. First, it is a ministry in the sense that it demands self-sacrifice. Every mother feels the weight of this ministry as she experiences countless sleepless nights caring for a fussy, nursing baby or as she sacrificially shuttles children around to various activities,” she said.

While her husband attends Southwestern Seminary, Hutto manages their home, cares for their three children and is beginning to homeschool their eldest.

“Having children and being a full-time homemaker has meant tremendous financial sacrifices on my husband’s and my part. We live in a small home, only have one family vehicle, and spend very little money on non-essentials,” she said. “For my husband, it has meant taking seminary much slower and watching many of his contemporaries graduate and go on to pastoral ministry sooner than he is able to. Though difficult, these are sacrifices we have been happy to make knowing that the eternal rewards far outweigh the temporal sacrifices.”

Hutto, a member of MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church in Irving, said she also believes motherhood is a Great Commission ministry.

“As mothers, our primary mission field is our children. We have a responsibility to raise our children in the knowledge and discipline of the Lord which requires time, creativity, effort and commitment,” she said. “As in all things we are called to bring glory to our heavenly father, and the most important way we can do this with our children is through sharing the gospel with them and purposefully discipling them in the ways of the Lord.”

For Hutto and many others, the sacrifice of motherhood is worth it.

“As a stay-at-home mother, I have the opportunity and privilege to be the single greatest influence on my little children’s lives. This reality is both exciting and terrifying because I can either take advantage of the abundance of time we have together or waste it,” she said. “I am not responsible for saving them, only the Holy Spirit can awaken their hearts to new life, but God has given me the incredible responsibility of sharing the good news of the gospel with them and of training them in the ways of righteousness.”