You’re
grateful to God for your paycheck. It
keeps food on the table and pays the bills.
You’re thankful for the coworker camaraderie and sense of purpose your
job gives you each day. But, honestly, this isn’t where you thought you’d be right now.
You thought by this point in your life you would have ditched the Monday
morning rush hour commute and daily grind for the much more fulfilling,
God-honoring job of full-time wife and mother. It’s what you’ve always dreamed of doing and
sermons and books based on Proverbs 31 and Titus 2 seem to indicate that being
a stay-at-home mother is the most biblical role a woman can have. But marriage hasn’t come and, consequently,
neither has motherhood. You’re stuck in
this 8 to late job you thought would surely be a temporary transition to your real
work as a woman, that of raising godly children and running a household.
Next
to marriage and motherhood – displaying the relationship between Christ and the
church and raising up the next generation of believers – your secular
job seems thoroughly pedestrian and downright unbiblical. But by living your life as if it’s still
waiting to happen, constantly craning your neck around your current
circumstances to see what God has for you in the future, you’re missing all the
opportunities He has given you to glorify Him today.
Consider
for a moment that though you may never have imagined being a career woman at this age,
God knew you would be. In fact, in His
sovereignty He has lead you to the job you currently have. Also consider that you do not become biblical
only when you assume a certain role or marital status. You, single woman, became a biblical woman
the moment you became a child of God, the moment the Spirit convicted you of
your sins and you turned to Christ for salvation. Therefore, nothing you do is truly “secular”
and “meaningless”. Everything you do,
everything you are is holy and set apart for God’s glory.
Some say that secular work is a curse, the result of the
fall. They point to Genesis 3:19, “By
the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread.”
In his sermon titled “The Conscientious Christian Employee”, evangelical
pastor John MacArthur clears up that common misconception about work.
“In
Genesis chapter 2 we read this in verse 15, ‘And the Lord God took the man and
put him into the Garden of Eden to till it and to keep it.’ The Fall of man
didn't come until chapter 3. In chapter 2, God designed man to work. Work is not part of the curse, sweat is part
of the curse. It is the intensity of
work necessary to earn the bread that implies the curse, but work is a
blessing.
Not only were we created to work but all of our work is a sacred
duty…everything you do is with reference to your relationship to God…..Whatever you do, whatever kind of work
you're engaged in, housewife to senior executive and everything in between,
whatever it is it is a sacred duty….every job has intrinsic value not
particularly for its own sake, but because when it is integrated into the life
of a Christian it becomes the arena in which that Christian lives out his
spiritual existence….it becomes the arena in which your spiritual faith is
lived out.”
I hope this gives you a new, godly perspective as you head to your job this Monday morning. Yes,
it is a wonderful blessing to be a stay-at-home wife and mother but if God has not opened the door to that opportunity, don't despair. As a single
woman in the workplace, you are not spiritually inferior or
unbiblical. You are not a second-rate example of godly femininity. God has placed you where you
are to be salt and light to those around you.
Your work matters to Him.
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