The Christmas season has come upon us once again. Can I encourage
you to do whatever is necessary to make things less hectic for you?
It may mean you don’t send Christmas cards; each family has
to decide for themselves. My prayer for my family and yours is that
we work very hard to keep the focus on Jesus Christ and His birth.
That would be the greatest gift we could give to our families.
Welcome to all our new CWM subscribers, we continue to grow weekly.
You are not alone. You have sisters from all over the world, including
Emmah from Kenya who graciously took her time to be interviewed
this month.
Interview
Emmah is a married 32 year old CWM who lives in Nairobi, Kenya.
She has daughters ages 4 and 2 ½. She also has a son who
is 10 months old. Emmah is a Gender and Human Rights Advisor.
Here are a few things Emmah enjoys as a Christian Working Mom:
• Interaction with the market place. It is exciting and I
enjoy bringing new ideas to the market place. There are a million
things to learn.
• I enjoy sharing Christ with others as I interact with them
• Reaching out to others with the resources that God gives
you, I am for example able to help needy children and sow seeds
of righteousness in peoples’ lives.
• The inner peace when you know your work is a calling too.
• Molding of a Mums character , through the tough times and
the many demands of a working Mum
Emmah struggles with:
Balancing time, busy schedules and family
• Missing the children sometimes, you feel like you are losing
touch especially when you miss those milestones.
• Dealing with nannies – some are good and some not
so good at all. This has been a very stressful time in the course
of my motherhood. How do I trust them to take care of my children?
• The guilt, some of it really uncalled for , especially when
I have to travel on job related assignments
I encourage you to look up Emmah’s favorite Bible Verses:
Proverbs 3:5-6, Hebrews 11:32-40.
What is God teaching you right now?
God is teaching me how to trust him and to focus on him despite
all the challenges that I encounter in life. I think for a long
time I have magnified my challenges and not focused on the greatness
of our God. I am learning how to handle tough times better, to stay
focused on God’s infinite wisdom and everlasting love.
God is also teaching me prayer and fasting. I think I have not
been keen on what fasting is all about. I am learning and I can
honestly tell you that I am in the school of the Holy Spirit on
this one. Indeed He trains our hands for war and our fingers for
battle.
God is teaching me how to love him and to listen to Him when he
speaks. I am learning intimacy with Him, I am learning to stay still
and wait on Him.
Words of Encouragement for other Christian Working Moms
I know it is not easy, but it is doable. We must keep on leaning
on God to give us wisdom to handle each and every day. All the same,
we must keep our priorities very clear, we must never stay late
at work trying to please a boss at the expense of our children,
we need to have pure motives and balanced value systems.
We must also make good use of the time that we have with our children
and pray to God that each of those times count. All the same, we
must learn not to live everyday with guilt, we must trust God with
our hearts and our children.
We also need to understand that God has a plan for each one of
us, none is like the other, so we cannot spend time envying other
people, we must appreciate Gods grace for our situation and learn
to live with that.
Most of all, we must be grateful for the gift of motherhood. Whether
we are working or not, being a mother is not just sign of fertility
neither is it a platform for self righteousness for those who adopt,
as a matter of fact it is a declaration of war against the powers
of darkness. We are declaring that we are raising a few more soldiers
for Christ. That we have a few more recruits in the army of the
Lord, so let’s take it as it is and not major on the minors.
Life is not perfect; we must appreciate our lives and ensure that
we live each day to the glory of God. Lets’ do our part as
working Mums, God will do His.
Anything else you would like to share:
I have a deep desire and love for Christ and that is all I want
my children to know. I want them to know Christ. He is the hope
giver; He is the Author of life. He is all they need in this life.
I want them to learn from me too and I pray to God that I will be
a good model, not a perfect model but one saved by Grace.
As working Mums we must always remember that God is not the author
of confusion, if we wait on Him, He speaks to us and he offers practical
life solutions to live everyday to His Glory.
I LOVE HIM!
Emmah thank you so much for reminding us that our children are
soldiers in God’s army and that we are to teach them God’s
Word on a daily basis.
Final Thoughts
It is very hard in a materialistic world to teach our children
the ways of God. God’s ways are not the world’s ways.
In this busy Christmas season may each of our families take time
to help others and keep the focus off of ourselves.
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.
