Christian Working Mom Interview May 2008
Welcome
Prayer Partners
Blog/Online Bible Study
Coaching Tips
Interview
Final Thoughts
Welcome
Hello everyone. How are you all doing?
I’m truly trying to just survive this week and
next. My children are out of school on May 30th. It
seems like we have had something every night and my
daughter has final exams. I’m just hanging on.
Don’t you just “love” those hectic
times? This month we are privileged to have a CWM
from Malaysia to share with us. Sally is my dear sister
in Christ who I have met through email. As I have
said many times if I don’t see her on this side
of heaven I hope to meet her in heaven one day. My
prayer for you this month is God’s presence
will be very real to you.
Do you love good praise music? I just
recently received the Brooklyn Tabernacle’s
latest CD “I’ll Say Yes” from my
sister. I love the CD and you can’t help but
praise God when listening and singing along. Click
here to find out more.
Prayer Partners
We had several woman matched from our
last CWM issue. I have one more CWM who would like
a prayer partner. Prayer partners “meet”
through email and pray for one another’s concerns.
So, many women have shared how blessed they are by
having a prayer partner. So, if you would like a prayer
partner, send an email to Kimberly@kimberlychastain.com
with Prayer Partner in the subject heading and I will
give you a prayer partner.
Blog/Online Bible Study
We have had some great discussions on
the CWM Blog recently. One discussion is about hiring
someone to clean your house. Also, I recently posted
information on a website that gives modesty guidelines
for girls. So, do check out the CWM Blog at http://christianworkingmoms.blogspot.com.
Again, I will try to add another CWM Bible Study soon.
You can find the Online Bible Studies at http://cwmbiblestudy.blogspot.com.
Coaching Tips
Do you want a quick devotional to help
your grow in your walk with God each day? You can
have one delivered daily to your email box. To find
out more go to http://www.kimberlychastain.com/cwmtips.htm.
Interview
Sally is a 39 married CWM who lives
in Malaysia. She has a daughter age 8. Sally is a
freelance lecturer.
Sally says she was a full-time working
Mom for 5 years and has freelanced for the last 3
years. She says she thanks God for her work (she loves
teaching), the contact with the students, and friendships
with colleagues.
Sally shares the main struggle in being
a CWM is it did not make any difference to the Christian
community she belonged to. In other words, the joys
of being a WM was easily shared with my colleagues
(whom many were moms, and many were not Christians),
but if you add a C before WM, it only boiled down
to a personal story of faith between me and God. There
was no affirmation from the Christian community around
me regarding what I was doing. I had to affirm myself
in God that my role was ordained by Him, and that
my work was valuable to Him. Apart from my husband,
and a couple of friends, I guess the main struggle
of being a CWM is to belong to a community where the
theology of work was reserved only for men, and where
all ‘good’ moms were only home-makers.
Sally says it is hard to pick out a
favorite Bible verse, because she has many for different
times in her life.
God is teaching Sally to know within
myself that what I am called to do is of HIM and that
that alone should be my security and foundation. I
am in the process of settling that truth (of embracing
academia as my God-called vocation) within myself….after
8 years…!!
Sally offers these words of encouragement
for other Christian Working Moms: To settle what I
said in the previous Question: to KNOW within themselves
that God has called them to work, and that they are
fulfilling the Great Commission not by being at home
like what most of us have been taught to do, but by
being salt and light ‘out there’.
Sally also says I feel that what CWMs
need the most is an affirmation that what we are doing
IS OF GOD. We need teaching on the theology of work,
and we need teaching on how culture (and especially
the Christian culture) can stop us from pleasing God
by using the talents He has given us to work. We live
in the 21st century, where women are penetrating new
frontiers, yet the ideal role for Christian moms is
still confined to the glorified picture of the home-maker….
Thank you Sally for sharing your thoughts
today. I think you made an excellent point that sometimes
our working is more accepted by unbelievers than fellow
Christians. I love how Christian sisters in our CWM
community can be an encouragement to one another.
Sally thanks for encouraging us today.
Final Thoughts
I don’t know about you, but every
summer I plan to do so many things with my children
or do things around the house, yet often I don’t
get as much done as I wanted to. May I encourage you
and me especially to be intentional about just goofing
off and enjoying being with our children?
Till next time,
Kimberly M. Chastain
