Career paths for our daughters

My buddy James sent me this YouTube video from a homeschool convention in Illinois...



I loved near the end when one of the young women was asked what she wants to be. She said "I want to be a mom and homeschool my kids". Praise God for this young woman and her parents! That is a far nobler aspiration than being a business executive or a lawyer or even a doctor.

What is our desire for our children, particularly our daughters? To conform to the world’s view of success or to conform to the quiet, humble life of those called to follow Christ? I don’t think that there is anything wrong with them being a doctor or a teacher or a business leader. I also think we do them a disservice if we don’t raise our daughters to view being a mom as being at the very least as important as having a “career” and in fact we should be raising our daughters to view motherhood as the preferred “career”! It is hard in our parental pride to look at our daughters and not see them as special, as different from other kids. Our two older girls are 16 and 12 and are incredibly bright. Blessed with being natural and voracious readers, with creative minds and appetites to learn it is easy to dream of them being doctors or vets or any number of professions. Sure being a mere “stay at home mom” is fine for the daughters of other parents but my girls are special. They certainly are, as are yours. All them more reason to encourage them to make their own choices but to view being a wife and mother (and educator!) as being a wonderful, God honoring choice and one that is even more valuable to society and the church than being a lawyer or an engineer. We have let the world’s idea of success and prestige infect our thinking and in doing so have neglected to place the proper importance on parenting in general and motherhood in particular. Few Christians would deny the beauty and value of motherhood. Let’s make sure our daughters hear that message from us, loud and clear.