"The Maxim of Motherhood" #2

“If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly!”

This quote was from: What’s Wrong with the World, and it begins by saying we agree about the evil, but disagree about the good…we agree about the abuses of things, but differ very much about the uses of them. He concludes the opening chapter with, “What is wrong with the world is that we do not ask what is right.” The inference is clear that a woman with her children is the good, and a mother in the home is what’s right. The book: Common Sense 101 says, “It is really no great accomplishment for a woman to do what a man can do…what is much more obvious –and much more ignored is that there is one thing a woman can do that a man cannot do: be a mother. The feminists claim they want the woman to have more influence in society, and then they take her away from the place where she has the greatest of all influence in society: the home.”

I understand that many mothers have to work, and I applaud them for their sacrifice and service. But I also am awed by the mother that is committed entirely to family life which is essential and eternal. “Working mother” is a misnomer…the word “mother” is already a synonym for some of the hardest and most demanding work ever shouldered by any human. My wife and mother lived Santayana’s aphorism, “The difficult is that which can be done immediately; the impossible is that which takes a little longer.”

Chesterton says, “The human house is a paradox, for it is larger inside than out…when we step out of the home, when we pass from private life to public life, we are passing from a greater work to a smaller one, and from a harder work to an easier one. And that is why most modern people wish to pass from the great domestic task to the smaller and easier commercial one. They would rather be in the business world serving the minor needs of a hundred different people than meeting all the major needs of just one person…they would rather teach a course in trigonometry to a hundred children than struggle with the whole human character of one child…How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the basics, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone?...Whoever makes herself responsible for one small baby, as a whole, will soon find that she is wrestling with gigantic angels and demons.”

What a great mystery, this eternal cosmic conflict between the serpent and the woman, and the fruit/children they produce (Gen.3:15, Rev.12:2-5). I am utterly convinced that not only my wife, but every mother if seen in the Spirit is dressed like Eowyn (the female warrior) in “The Return of the King.” When evil attacks and overwhelms mocking that “no man living can defeat me!” There she stands, a wounded warrior, shouting “I am no man!”, and strikes a death blow to the enemy of our souls and homes. Yes, a mother reacts with the terrifying force of her wisdom, a militant defense of what’s right, and the unquenchable fierceness of her love…and it is “Beautiful, Lovely…Awesome as an Army with Banners!” (S.O.S.6:4,10, 8:6-7). William Wallace that said, “They say that man is mighty, he governs land and sea, he wields a mighty scepter o’er lesser powers than he. But a mighty power and stronger man from his throne has hurled: “For the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” (I wanted to end this by saying, “For those about to rock, we salute you!”, but I won’t).

“A thing worth doing is worth doing…badly?” In faith, by love, Absolutely!” For, all mothers intuitively know the secret of their greatest challenge and most repeated advice…“patience!” So, get started, and “let patience and faith have their perfect work”…believing that we have time to obey God and do it right. I honor the mothers that go first with little or no training. I thank the Mom’s that overcome…being afraid, but going forward anyway. I encourage you all that you embody “another spirit”…an “excellent spirit” that says in the face of giants, “Let us go up at once…for we are well able to overcome.” You go above and beyond…and the day is coming that you will “see of the travail of your soul, and shall be satisfied.”

Mom’s, it is worth it all…and “we salute you!!!”