As a response to Belinda's previous post here are a few of my thoughts as a woman who is busy in the home with a husband & 3 young kids, but also works a part time job to help support the family and serves in the church as a women's worker. For me, I must help my husband, look after the kids and work, so ministry is the only thing I could possibly remove from my life.

On a regular basis I ask myself the question am I too busy because of the ministry I do? On every occasion I think through this issue, especially when it comes to the affect it might have on my kids, I am confronted by what being a Christian means for my life and for my kids.

How can I teach my kids to:

• Love others as Christ loves them without spending time with people and sacrificing for them
• Tell people about Jesus, when I dont put myself out there forming real long-term relationships with non-Christians are share my faith with them
• joyfully serve in Christian community when the only time I see other Christians is for two hours at church on Sunday
• Grow in their faith, when I put no effort into learning and being discipled in the Word and prayer on a daily basis
• Understand the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross for them if it hasnt impacted my own life and I am not spurred on to sacrifice and take up my cross.

Yes, on a daily basis that means I teach my kids about God through family prayer and Bible reading and I spend quality time with them so that they feel like my most important ministry is them. This also means I need to make sure my own daily walk with God is strong. I am the first to admit that I have fallen short in these areas!

My faith, however, is the foundation of my life, and to teach and show my children real faith in Jesus I need to "live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God...(Col 1:10)" To this end I strive and for this reason I will be "busy" every day that God has graciously given me to serve Him. This is not a legalistic endeavour, but relies every minute on God's grace to forgive my shortcomings and give me strength! Along the way I will pray that God will cover my failings as a wife and mother and help me to grow and change to be more godly and to get the balance right.

As a child, like Belinda, I have only ever known busy Christian parents. Their sacrifice for the gospel has shown me true Christianity on a daily basis. Yes, sometimes they have been too busy, but I never felt neglected and my faith would not be what is it today without my parents showing me real gospel sacrifice in ther own lives. They continue to motivate me today to live for God wholeheartedly in all that I do.

I exist, and therefore my children exist, to serve and glorify God. How can I teach them this fundamental truth? By being a living example of this and so I will continue in my everyday ministries even though sometimes it will make me, perhaps, dare I say it, too busy!

Busy at home

I got my first “I’m too busy for Bible study this year” email recently. I have to be honest in saying that these kindof messages cut to my heart.
I do, however, need to be mindful, maybe they are too busy and it leads me to think about the issue of Christian women trying to balance the demands of everyday life.
My first reaction would be to ask: ‘what are you too busy with?”

There are definitely going to be circumstances when women will be busy but can those words leave our lips if we are Christian women? How can we be too busy not to be engaging with other Christian’s over God’s word?
How do we go about deciding what to do with our time?

Our priority, as Christian woman should be “to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds and souls” and for some of us women we are given the greatest privilege: part of showing our love for God is through the loving and serving of our husbands and children.
As women who are married and with children – our mandate, so to speak is to ‘seek the good’ of our family.

In my opinion what can be a better ‘good’ for our family (married or not we are all part of a family) than being a godly woman?

Here are some random thoughts and questions that you might find helpful in trying to balance everyday life.


Have I set aside time to read the bible and pray most days?

Prayer and bible reading are essentials!! It’s obvious – we can’t be profoundly influenced by what we don’t know. God has given us His word, the Bible, so that we might know what He is like and how we should live in fellowship with Him. Prayer is the means for us to respond and express out trust in Him.

Do I need to find/be employed in outside employment of the home?

For the benefit of the family some must find paid employment and in the same flavour – it may be beneficial for the woman to be working. The verse that comes straight to mind is Titus 2:5 “busy at home”. Some may interpret it to mean that it is inappropriate for the wife and mother to be employed outside the home. And for some wives and mother’s this may be the case, however what the author is advocating is that if one is to undertake the calling of wife and mother, she is too love and not neglect her husband and children.
Some women are able to fulfil this role as well as one outside the home

What the author of the text is opposing is being idle. The other verse that comes to mind is Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31 describes a wife and mother whose work for her family broadens far beyond the household tasks of the family home. (for example verses 16 and 24 “She considers a field and buys it…she plants a vineyard…She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies belts to the tradesman”)
We see the woman in Proverbs working really hard to care and to fulfil her responsibility to her family and not only from the kitchen!

“Doing things/activities for God list”

Carolyn Mahaney (Feminine Appeal pg. 105) has some excellent questions to ask of every ministry opportunity:

“What are my reasons for considering this opportunity? Are they selfish or God-honouring?”


“Will pursuing this venture glorify God and honour the gospel?”

I would also add the question about the kid factor – how is this ministry gong to impact my family?

For instance when my kids were young a playgroup ministry run from our church was awesome, they came with me! In the same token we do however need to understand that when God’s priorities are ours there is going to be a cost. The bible is clear about that, my instinct is to protect them from the ‘costs’, however if we want them to grow up with a real faith in Jesus we need to prepare them for the “costs”.
I watched my parents give up days of work in order to meet the pastoral needs of members of the church I grew up in. They also assisted the homeless of our community and I never felt ‘duped’. I also observed my father praying on the couch each morning. These activities together showed me Christ.



How are you showing Christ to your family? How are you seeking good for your family?
Is your godliness showing through your busy weekly timetable?


Any thoughts?

TWBC Article

I have been asked to do a write up for Trowel & Sword on TWBC. So here is what I have done:

The Tasmania Women’s Bible Conference is exactly that! It’s an annual day conference held in Tasmania, for women whose desire is to have their minds, hearts, and lives shaped by the Bible. The conference is held both in the North (Launceston – 4th April) and in the South (Hobart 28th March) of the state.
Both were fantastic days where women of all ages and from all different churches came together to learn from Gods word and to encourage each other!

This year we heard Louisa Pfitzner (from Sydney), who gave two challenging talks from the book of 2 Peter on the topic of Knowing God. In the first talk we heard how we can know God truly through Jesus and we have to watch out that we don’t fall into false teaching which threatens our knowledge of God.

The second talk was how God has graciously given us knowledge about him. He has given us all that we need for knowledge and salvation. Yet knowledge still requires energy and hard work. Yes, we have life and godliness through grace, but we still have to make every effort to train in godliness. Grace and works must go together.

So, as you can see both of these talks were very challenging and it’s our prayer that all the women who went along would continue thinking about these things and will know God!

There was also a choice of electives to go to which ranged from the Trinity, to the existence of God, spiritual warfare, image and affluence, marriage, depression, and guidance. These were a great chance to hear from other women about different aspects of Gods character and to learn from each other more of what Gods word teaches us.

So, the conference is over for another year, but next years are already starting to get moving!! The dates are set for Saturday 20th March in the South and on the 27th March in the North, so for all those in Tassie, keep your date free!

What do you think? Any comments/questions/suggestions?