We Battled Bitterness as Homeschool Moms Until Jesus Became the Goal

Christy (0:00)

Hey, you guys, I'm back with Heather.

Heather (0:01)

We're back.

Christy (0:02)

Yes, y'all. And then today, y'all, this podcast episode is for anyone who's wrestling with bitterness.

Heather (0:08)

Okay.

Christy (0:08)

Okay. All right, welcome to The Gritty Gospel. I'm Christy.

Heather (0:13)

And I'm Heather.

Christy (0:14)

Hey, y'all. And y'all know we love you, we're so glad to be with you this week, and we're praying to encourage your hearts. You guys, I was riding with my daughters up and back, and I love listening to Tim Keller podcasts up and back to cross country races. This last weekend, actually yesterday. And you guys, I was so blessed. I gotta be honest, I don't even know what this sermon was about in its bigger picture.

But I got a nugget that I want to impart to y'all because it so blessed me.

And then, oh, and then as we talk about and wrestle with it, it's so blessing us that we just want to pass it forward to you in the event that it could tremendously bless your heart and your daily life. And here it is, y'all, for all of us, our goal should be to please Jesus. Okay, I'm going to say that again.

Our goal should be, with our days, with our time, with our resources, with our money, with the stewardship of our children, to aim to please Jesus. And I don't mean that in a weird way. I don't, I want to clarify. I don't mean that like we have to earn our salvation. I mean, for people who've already been saved by his grace, by his goodness, by his mercy, then now the rest of our lives, we literally have the freedom in having as our goal that I want to walk intimately with Jesus. I want to honor him, obey him, worship him, and please him. I want to do life together. I think about how the scriptures do say, I don't want to be, we're going through first kings, and it keeps saying that the people did what was detestable on the side of the Lord. I don't want to be detestable before God. That's my hope, you guys, for my family, for me. I desire to honor and please Jesus.

Okay, so that's kind of like what we mean, and please Jesus. But you guys, and listen to this, here's the nugget. If that's your goal, if your goal in life is to please Jesus, then you're not going to walk in bitterness. And let me tell you what I mean when I say that. And I'm really just reiterating what Tim Keller said in his podcast. But as you become a living sacrifice, and as you, because y'all, I'm talking to moms here, we're talking to moms, we are moms who are in the daily, and we're homeschool moms, where y'all, you know better than anyone what it's like to live your life as a living sacrifice, where you're laying your life down, what you'd rather do, what you'd, you can totally move them all around. Sorry, I like, I did too. I kept. Okay, but you, you guys lay down your lives every day to serve, to love, and my hope is it's all for his glory that we do it because we love the Lord. He's given us these children. He's called us to disciple them. But you guys, we're laying down our lives for others, for our children, for our families, for our husbands. We serve day after day after day. Every time you make breakfast, lunch or dinner, you pack lunch boxes, you teach your kids, you spend hours, educating multiple ages and multiple grade levels. When you could be getting your nails done, I mean, you could be like having a nice massage.

Heather (3:04)

Taking a nap.

Christy (3:05)

You could take a nap. You could actually clean your house.

Heather (3:08)

Yeah.

Christy (3:09)

Instead of living in it and blowing it up. Yeah, maybe it would stay clean. Yes.

Go out to lunch with a friend, like regularly. I don't know. There's a lot of things that we could do. And then frankly, that you may see other people doing, that we, because of what we feel called to our conviction is, you know, we are actively in the working of the day, in the days we are working to mold the character of our children, to teach them, to train them, to love them. And so this is what Tim Keller was saying. If your goal is to have a successful career, and if you view the means by which you aim to achieve that goal, if you view Jesus as an accessory to that goal, like you would pray and ask for him to bless your career, to bless your pockets, to give you greater salary. If you would, if your goal really is comfort or wealth, then, and if you view your time, your money, and your resources, and Jesus as the means by which you actually pursue that goal, then you're going to, you are setting yourself up to be bitter your entire life, because you've got an idol on the throne where Jesus should be reigning in your heart. You've set up an idol, and the idol is career, wealth, comfort.