living purposefully in the everyday

Yesterday I went to Coeur d’Alene and met with members of my senator’s staff regarding a current Senate bill that I want to see passed, preferably with my senator’s co-sponsorship. The bill is the Child Protection Compact Act, and it would allocate more funding over the next three years to a small but extremely effective State office that is our government’s nerve center for eliminating child trafficking, creating deterrence by convicting and punishing pedophiles, pimps, and brothel owners, and providing quality care for children who have been victimized.

Quite a while back on this blog, I wrote of an instance in which I did not do the thing that I should have done. Yesterday, as I was driving the hour and a half to Coeur d’Alene, tired from staying up late to review this bill and yet with adrenaline pumping about the task ahead of me, I thought about what I was doing and smiled. I am loving every day of my life as a mother, and I love the deep and continual knowledge that this is what I am meant to do. Yet this small task of bringing a certain small bill to my senator’s attention brought me a deep satisfaction as well. Lobbying for change in the matters that are dear to my heart has long been a goal of mine. But you know how there are goals that are like, hmm, yeah that would be fun to do, and then there are goals that are intrinsically important for you to accomplish because to do so means you are being faithful to living out the life you were meant to live? This was one of the latter. It is the cry of my heart to advocate on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves from the evil that assails them. And yesterday I did it.

I was able to do it, to take this one more little step toward becoming who God has designed me to be, because I am also able to be at home with my two little ones and thus begin to move in other such ways as opportunity arises. The satisfaction of it is still making me smile today as I follow up yesterday’s meeting with emails. I love taking care of my home and my family, and I love that as a stay-at-home mom, there are other little ministries that pop up here and there which I am able to make time for.

Last summer, one of those ministries was to hold Rilla in my arms while praying over a woman whose grandson had just drowned. The devastated woman was weeping her heart out as the paramedics worked on the boy who was just behind us. This summer, I held Abraham in my lap while speaking my heart and convictions to a couple of men who I hope will carry this issue to my state senator.

Very different circumstances, yet similar in that my children are always with me. Being home with them enables me to walk with purpose and to teach them to do the same. I hope that the coming years will bring many such opportunities. May I have the eyes to see and the courage to act on whatever good works God puts in front of me to do.