Pearls of Encouragement for Christian Working Moms
March 2007 Edition
Welcome
Blog
Online Bible Study
Article- Why Christian Working Mom?
Final Thoughts

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Welcome

I hope as a CWM you do not feel alone. There are over 1200 of us, at least, in our community and growing daily. I want you to know I appreciate you and feel privileged to meet with you each month through email. You all are truly women of God who care about one another. For all the new subscribers, please go to www.christianworkingmom.com and fill out the CWM survey. Join over 1300 women now who have all ready completed the survey.

Would you like to put the focus back on the real meaning of Easter? Try the Resurrection Eggs as a tangible way to tell your children about Christ. Your kids will love being able to participate in the telling of the story. You can find out more about the Resurrection Eggs here.

Blog

The CWM blog has had good discussions about marriage and other issues. The blog is a place to have your questions answered and to support one another. Now, I know a lot more of you read the blog than post. There is another blog I read daily, but rarely post. So, I know how you feel. Please join us in the discussion. You can find the blog at http://christianworkingmoms.blogspot.com.

Online Bible Study

The online Bible study has four lessons up now. I do think several of you are doing the lessons on your own and not posting your answers. That is fine if you don’t post your answers. We can learn from one another when we post answers. You can start the lessons at anytime. I would appreciate some feedback about the online Bible study. Let me know if you would like more lessons posted as well. Please send an email to Kimberly@kimberlychastain.com with Online Bible Study feedback in the subject heading. Oops! I almost forgot to tell you where you can access the Bible Study. You can find it at http://kimberlychastain.com/discussCWMU.

Article- Why Christian Working Mom?

I wanted to share with you today a little about why www.christianworkingmom.com started and how it has changed over the years. To the best of my memory (and you know as a Mom you lose brain cells every time you have children) the CWM website began in 2001. The reason the website started was out of a frustration on trying to do research on CWM’s. I spent days looking at search engines, calling people, and just trying to find anything on CWM’s. I came up with a big fat zero on information. I felt I was invisible. In different churches over the years, I felt like I had to make excuses for working or felt out of place for working. Truthfully, I felt isolated and lonely due to being a working Mom. So, I decided to start CWM as a way of at least providing support and visibility for CWM’s. As many women have written to tell me there are plenty of websites for stay at home Moms, but none for CWM’s. I do think we are different that your standard Working Mom site, because we have the added “guilt” from the church about working. So, in the beginning my purpose was to give voice to CWM’s. That is still important to me, but over the years my focus has changed.

My focus is now to point women to God and for them to get their identity from him. For them to glorify God in everything they do.
This became crystal clear this week when I read a comment left on a CWM Survey, this woman said, “The church always makes me feel that God loves stay at home moms better. There are almost no resources for Christian women who work outside the home. No support groups. It's as if the church feels working moms are somehow committing child abuse, and stay at home moms are far superior and better Christians.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

(I would love to respond to the surveys, but I can’t because there is no way to track them back to the sender. This is done in order to protect your privacy.) Anyway, I would love to shout from the rooftops God does not love stay at home moms better. He loves you my dear sister in Christ and he values you just as much. He sees your pain and hurt. He sees how hard you work at work and how hard you work at home to take care of your children. God cares about every area of your life, whether the church does or not.

One of the joys of the internet is women from all over the world are joining together as CWM’s to worship God in every area of our lives.
One of the downsides is not meeting in person. Please believe me when I say there are many times I wish I could reach out and give you a hug. I wish I could look in your eyes and truly tell you how much your Savior loves you. How he created you for what you are doing right now. No matter what is going on in your life, God knew it would happen before the world began. Truly mind blowing! I want you to know that no matter what the church says or a ill worded comment from a friend about your working, God says it is okay. I love you period. I could not love you more or less if you stayed at home.

Dear sister in Christ the world tries to tear us down daily and say our identity is in anything but Christ. I want you to know that Christ wants a relationship with you daily. He wants you to come to him when things are going well and when your day is filled with one frustration after another. God cares about you and values you. He loved you enough to send his only Son to die for you. Will you today, drink and rest in his love for you?

So, yes ladies I still want to be a voice for CWM’s. Also, I want all of us to live our lives intentionally seeking God’s presence and his direction for our lives. I want us to know whose we are and that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Can you rejoice today that God loves you period, no conditions?

Final Thoughts
We are finally at the end of one candy event to another. We go from Halloween, to Christmas, to Valentine’s Day, to Easter. While I do like candy, sometimes it is overwhelming. One long sugar high! Oh, by the way those little Cadbury eggs are my favorite at Easter.

Till next time,

Kimberly M. Chastain

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