Nailing Our Enemy

The world and its possibilities often glitter in front of many young women and new mothers.  Faced with the challenging and sometimes overwhelming demands of parenthood, some women run.  In the name of ministry, a calling, a purpose greater than raising the child, they seek fulfillment.

And can anyone blame them?  How glamorous is one blowout diaper after another?  How impressive is it to say at lunch with your career-winning friends (while you smell like spoiled milk from the last spit up before you walked out the door…no amount of perfume can cover that!) that you “stay at home” with baby while they gallivant to exciting places doing amazing things.  Seems like there would be bigger fish to fry…something more important that a gal could be doing than clipping toenails and wiping noses.  I mean, there’s a whole world out there that needs changin’!

Let me introduce you to one of my dearest friends.  Well, I don’t actually know her…personally.  But when I get to Heaven, I hope I get to spend at least one course of the marriage supper sitting at her table.  In my mind, we go way back.

Ladies and gentlemen…Meet Jael.

Jael was the wife of a well-to-do man who seems to be a bit of a loner.  He had parted company with his family and chose some pretty dangerous ground to go “camping” in.  He just happens to set up his tent where an enemy commander, Sisera, makes an escape after his entire army has been routed.  He then leaves his wife alone.  Unattended.  Sisera, the enemy of Israel, is running for his life past Jael’s tent.  With complete disregard for customs, traditions, or reputation, she invites Sisera into her tent and promises to hide him knowing that should any other man come looking, they would never enter a woman’s tent without her husband there.  He asks for water, she gives him milk.  And a blankie.  It’s not long before Sisera is sleeping like a baby.

Jael seizes her opportunity.  She takes a tent stake and a hammer, and NAILS Sisera through the temple.  Kills him dead.   She changes the fate of her nation with a cup of curds and one sharp object.

That’s what I love about Jael…she changes her country’s destiny without ever leaving home.

Ladies, don’t let the world woo you out of the life-altering nation-changing calling right under your nose.  Those kids have potential written all over their hearts.  I know motherhood can be difficult beyond our wildest dreams, monotonous and seemingly pointless many days.  But over the course of a couple decades, we can drive a stake right through the temple of our enemies.  My girl Jael did it, without ever even leaving the tent.

{Loving disclaimer:  I know many women simply do not have an option other than working outside the home, and again many more of my fabulous sisters in Christ have a calling in the workplace and as a mother simultaneously. This is not meant to discourage you or in any way lay some guilt trip or heavy weight on you…AT ALL.  Instead, let’s all check our hearts and see if we have let ANYTHING become a distraction in or priority over our primary calling of parenthood.}