With every child, I have had to pare down my life a little more. Now with six kids, an average day is personal time with Jesus, being a wife and mother, homeschooling, cooking, and cleaning. It’s hard not to think how mundane my life is right now.

One constant pressure parents face is to be relentlessly busy, having a calendar filled with “important” things. The temptation is real. I feel it myself. And when someone asks me what I’ve been up to and all I can think of is cooking, cleaning, and refereeing, I can almost feel a sense of shame or the instant need to try to come up with something that sounds more worthy. Why is there such embarrassment in a simple life filled with ordinary things?

But as God draws me nearer to him in his Word, I’m reminded that he’s not at all worried about what looks great to the world. He sees victory, success, and a life well-lived through a very different lens. In fact, the One worthy of all honor, glory and the Name that is above every other name, took on the nature of an obedient servant to win our salvation.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! – Philippians 2:5-8

Jesus set aside his glory.
Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Jesus spent three years making 12 disciples who would be his witnesses.
Jesus willingly suffered, bled, and died to redeem unworthy sinners like me.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:3-4

Jesus didn’t send us into the world to make a name for ourselves. He didn’t ask us to conform to the patterns of the world. Instead, he commanded us to go make disciples. And the mundane life where I’m present for my kids and my family is where God has called me to do that work. Motherhood may be a humble calling, but when we lay aside our ideas of what we should be doing, we get to be a part of what God is doing, and that is always so much better. Helping my kids fall in love with reading the Bible; teaching them to cook, clean, serve and become people with character and strength; modeling a life where we strive to rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances; these are the hidden seeds that I’m tending in the seemingly ordinary life that God has me in for this season. So next time you ask me what I’ve been up to I may just keep it simple. I’m making disciples. How about you?