Homemade, Hand-churned Icecream--"To Give Them Food in Due Season"

Late this evening when everyone else was sleeping, I got up and found some quiet time to read my Bible.

I read from Matthew 24 about the signs of the end times, and Jesus' admonition to watch and be ready. 

 Then I read this interesting verse, and I couldn't help relating it to my job as a mom of a large family.

"Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?

Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing." v. 45-46.

It sounds to me like the instructions are fairly simple:

Give My household food in due season.

That is something I have to oversee every day--seeing that my household gets food in due season,

so I can understand that.

Jesus is asking us to be faithful in simple obedience in simple areas.

We can spiritualize this verse and say Jesus wants us to feed people the gospel and be missionaries and so on, and that may be true, based on other texts in this very chapter. 

But as a mom, those verses were illumined to me this evening.

Jesus wants me to be a faithful servant to Him by faithfully serving my family in the humble and lowly tasks (that so often feel like drudgery) of each day.  

The making of menus, the scrubbing or peeling of potatoes and carrots, the sauteing of veggies for a husband who is trying to lose weight (and being successful)

 the thinking ahead to pull meat out of the freezer, 

setting, clearing, and wiping the table,

washing and putting away dishes,

cleaning the sink and counters,

shopping for bargains, 

 mixing cookies or hand churning icecream like the girls wanted to do the other day in the hand icecream mixer that they had bought while I was in PNG last summer,

to say nothing of everything else that moms do.

Much of what we do regards giving our household food in due season. 

Even as an American, our lives are pretty full of just trying to get three square meals on the table and clean up afterward, only to have to start over in a couple hours.

May we be faithful to what God wants of each of us personally, rather than beat up on our fellow servants out of personal frustration and weariness, 

or loaf or gluttonize while our fellow servants suffer. 

Lord, remember our fellow mothers in situations of distress and starvation.

May we not forget them even though they may be out of sight or across the world. 

May we not selfishly hoard or spend our money and time to only make life easier and more luxurious for ourselves,

but may we be willing to share so that other households, too, can have food and necessities.