Way back when The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson was newer I knew I wanted to read it. Sally was kind enough to send me a copy. I am using my affiliate links in this post.
The Mission of Motherhood is 12 chapters spanning 242 pages. Sally is a mother’s cheerleader. She is a wealth of encouragement for keeping the home-fires burning in a godly home, in my opinion. I did a good bit of highlighting and marking through my copy. Here are some of the things that I wanted to note.
First, on page 36 she says, “The purpose of this book is not to tell you how to live your life. And it’s certainly not to make you feel guilty. the purpose of this book is simply to hold up God’s ideal for the role of motherhood, to remind us of God’s design and how we can use our role to stitch together the pieces that will help make our families whole.”
Early in the book Sally talks about the struggle mothers have in our modern society to “have it all”, to be able to pursue a self-fulfilling career and have a family. Let’s face it, we cannot give 100% of ourselves to work AND 100% of ourselves to our families, this leads to guilt.
As Christian women desiring to have children and as Christian mothers it’s imperative that we understand God’s design and purpose for our role. The world tells us one thing, God’s word tells us another. Sally says on page 46, “Women were designed to nurture, to provide a life-giving environment in the home-to provide a center of life for all who live there. But as the women’s movement has gained ground over the course of the century, women have felt less and less free to follow this design.”
Secondly, she talks about the need to guard what our children are exposed to because, “Children tend to take in all information as truth. Guarding our children’s influences, therefore, would certainly include keeping close tabs on their media exposure – television, movies, even books. A wise mother will do very careful research before allowing her children access to most popular entertainment.” (page 93)
Thirdly, (and I have WAY more notations than these three), Sally offers a section called “For Thought and Reflection” at the end of each (I think) chapter. Through out the book she shares a peek into their home life. She mentioned in one such section that she and her husband bought a family museum membership and once or twice a month Clay would take the children out for a fun breakfast and to a museum or nature center for most of the day, which was good for their father-child relationships and good for Sally as she had some time alone.
I’ve barely scratched the surface on this book. I think many, maybe most, mothers will be encouraged by Sally’s practical ways of making home a haven and her children feel important. I’ll just give you a brief overview of the rest by sharing the the five major sections that make up the 12 individual chapters. (You can use this book for a bible study, too.)
- Part One: A Mother’s Calling
- Part Two: A Mother’s Heart for her God
- Part Three: A Mother’s Heart for her Children
- Part Four: A Mother’s Heart for her Home
- Part Five: A Mother’s Heart for Eternity
I definitely recommend this book though, if you are picky about your bible version, like me, you may need to use your own bible to look up the scripture she references. You can visit Sally’s website here.
