4.30.2012

Being a Mom: The Hardest & Best Job In the World




“The hardest job in the world is also the best job in the world. Thank you, Moms!”

That’s the closing line in this advertisement by Proctor & Gamble for the upcoming Summer Olympics in London.  2.6 million people have watched this video online.  One of those commented, “Watching this and thinking, ‘Will I ever be a good mother?’” 

 As much as I liked the commercial, I thought it was potentially more discouraging to mothers than encouraging. Why? I completely agree that being a mom is the hardest job in the world. Having been raised by an exceptional mom and now being married to an exceptional mom, there is no doubt it, it is the hardest job in the world.  But is what makes it the hardest job in the world the fact that you have to do laundry, take them to school, and bandage up their wounds?   No, what makes it the hardest job in the world I think has more to do with the fact that you do all of those little things and rarely do you hear, “Thank you, Mom. I love you.”  What makes it the hardest job in the world is watching watch those little, or formerly little ones, go through sickness and heartache that you can’t heal. What makes it the hardest job in the world is watching them grow up and make bad decisions that you can’t change. 

And is it really true that what makes being a mom the best job in the world the fact that your child competes and succeeds in the Olympics and that makes it all worth it?  What about those kids who grow up and just do ordinary stuff the rest of their life?  Sometimes, what makes it the best job in the world is the fact that your kid is still living. Sometimes what makes it the best job in the world is that your child grows up and learns from their mistakes.  But sometimes they don’t and they never get it together.  

But it’s still the best job in the world because for the most part, mother’s never stop being moms.  They keep doing it and loving.  What other job is there where you put so much into it and potentially get so “little” out of it but you keep the job? In any other job like that , a person would just quit, but not moms.  That’s the greatest proof that it’s the best job in the world.

Why do moms do that?  1 Thessalonians 2:7-8 says, “Be we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become dear to us.” It’s because children are dear to their mothers. It’s because moms are affectionately desirous of their children.  Therefore they give themselves away no matter the outcome or result. And that’s a small, but beautiful picture of God’s love for sinners through Christ: affectionately desirous and self-sacrificing for our good.

Therefore, to all the moms this month who have raised just ordinary kids, like me, you really do have the hardest and best job in the world and we are glad you never quit.  And to all of us ordinary kids who have been raised by these extraordinary moms, “rise up and call her blessed.”

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