Spring is here in the Southeastern United States. It is warm
again and the flowers and trees are blooming. The weather is beautiful.
We serve a God who is a wonderful creator. Our prayers go out
to the many people in the world who are suffering right now: Japan,
Libya, Egypt, and the list could go on. May God’s people
reach out and shine the light of Jesus during this difficult time.
So many times I have told you that we have CWMs from all over
the world in our community. I just wanted to share with you how
global we are. Recently, an Irish CWM living in South Africa was
partnered with a CWM who lives in India to pray for one another.
How cool is that? I do pray that in heaven I can meet all of the
CWMs. Maybe God will design us a meeting place.
Prayer Partner Needed
I matched several women as prayer partners from our last issue,
but have one more CWM who wants a prayer partner. If you are interested,
send an email to Kimberly@kimberlychastain.com
and put prayer partner in the subject heading and I will match
you up.
Idea for all Moms to work together
So many times I have heard from CWMs that their church does not
have Bible studies in the evenings for working Moms to attend.
All the church activities for women seem to be designed for the
stay at home Moms. Then, if you suggest as a CWM about starting
a Bible study you get nominated to lead it and you feel defeated.
Recently, I have been burdened about all the women around the
world who are persecuted or just getting by in order to provide
for their families. I discovered a website,
www.worldcraftsvillage.com. This organization sells items
women and men make overseas in order for the artisans to support
themselves. All money from the crafts goes back to the artisan.
In turn, the money is used to support their families.
Here is where the idea comes in. Could Moms in your church, working
or not, come together to host a party to sell these items in order
to help other women who are less fortunate? You could make this
a one-time event or host it quarterly. Then, you would not have
a lot of work involved. The website gives you all the details
about how to host a party. In fact, my Sunday school class is
sponsoring this for our church and hope to host one city wide
in the future. My prayer is if you could begin this in your church
it could foster meaningful relationships between the stay at home
Moms and working Moms. If you decide to host a party I would love
to hear how your party goes. Let’s minister to women all
over the world.
Interview
I appreciate Caitlin taking time to be interviewed this month.
Caitlin is a married 31 year old CWM who lives in the United States.
She has a daughter age 2 ½ and a son 11 months. Caitlin
is a Sales Operation Manager.
Caitlin enjoys being a CWM because she feels that God has blessed
her with gifts to be successful in her job and it drives her passions.
I think that it makes me a better mom in the long run. I love
being a role model for my children to do whatever they want in
life and realize that being a parent doesn’t mean losing
your identity. I also am blessed with a flexible job that has
limited travel and allows me to spend a good amount of time with
my children. It gives me confidence and a sense of self that I
know I would struggle with being at home.
Caitlin struggles as a Christian Working Mom in the following
areas:
Obviously missing my children. It is especially hard on days that
one of them is ill or my husband and my schedule don’t align
and we have to ask for help. I feel a lot of pressure as well
(probably mostly internally) from others who don’t work
and I feel outnumbered by stay at home moms in the church environment
so it’s difficult to find a group of women in my same situation
that I can pray with.
Caitlin’s favorite Bible verse is:
He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness,
but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration
and renewal of the Holy Spirit, --Titus 3:5
What is God teaching you right now?
That my life is long and I know His purpose is lingering out there
and I’m on the right path to it but I can’t quite
see through the weeds just yet. That I just need to trust and
pray that my life is an example of God’s love to others
and that he uses me for His divine purpose. That I can never repay
the blessings he has bestowed upon me and I hope that I can only
use them for good.
Words of Encouragement for other Christian Working Moms
There are good days and bad days just as there would be for stay
at home mothers. The key is not to question your life’s
choices every minute when you have bad days (easier said than
done). Try to set yourself up to make the choice instead of being
forced into anything and then trust that God will guide you through
the bad days and show you the purpose for your life. Pray a lot,
find some support, and don’t let your emotions rule your
decisions. As moms we can always find reasons why we want to be
there with our children but just because we love them so much
doesn’t always mean we need to be at home with them every
day. We are still their moms and still make all of the decisions
about their care and well being even when we are away. My pastor
told me one time the most important thing you can do for your
children is to show them the path to a life long journey loving
God. If we can do that for our kids then that is the best life
we can give them and I know my children can have that even if
I do work.
Anything else you would like to share:
I am really passionate about this topic so I’d love to stay
linked in and help out wherever I can. I tried to start a small
group of women who work at our church and it only ended up being
4 people in a very large church so I see it as a great need in
my community to show women there are other options. I think there
are still a lot of misconceptions out there about women who work
as well that I hope we can take the time to understand each other
as Christians and remove the need for judgment amongst ourselves.
Caitlin I couldn’t agree more about understanding one another
as Moms and not judging each other. As your pastor said, ultimately
all Christian Moms should have as their goal to raise children
who serve God and glorify Him in all they do.
Final Thoughts
Have you noticed in your house (or maybe it is just my house)
that everyone can have a bad day, except for Mom?!! Moms are people
too and last time I checked I’m not perfect either.
Till next time,
Kimberly M. Chastain
Kimberly M. Chastain, MS, LMFT is the Christian
Working Mom Coach and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.
She is the author of The Voices of Christian Working Moms,
2 ebooks and an online Bible study. To find out how to receive
coaching tips by email daily, go to http://www.kimberlychastain.com/cwmtips.htm.
To find out more about her books go to www.christianworkingmom.com.
For a free, initial coaching session send an email to free@kimberlychastain.com.
