Mustard Seed Moments

“Why does Mom take lots of pictures?” My five-year old asks.

“I don’t know,” my husband shrugs.

The conversation is repeated often and it’s true. I take a lot of photos. Fresh produce from the garden. Homemade preserves. Meals. Crafts. Hikes and outings and fun.

Of course, I never take photos of the tall patch of weeds beside the vegetable garden or the crumbs on the dining room floor.

I don’t photograph the paint that’s peeling in the hallway or the spot where the roof leaked into the nursery closet.

You will never see pictures of the children fighting or of me flopped across the bed in utter discouragement because I lost patience with them … again.

Or of the times I’m driven to me knees to ask for strength or the countless prayers for grace that I utter under my breath throughout the day.

I don’t take pictures of those things. I take pictures of the happy things. The victories.

I call them my “mustard seed moments”.

When I was working, there were measurable goals. Performance appraisals. Commendations. Raises. There was almost-instant fruit.

It made me feel important.

Then I became a housewife and everything changed. Learning to let go of my wants and my needs was an adjustment.

When you’re a housewife, a stay-at-home mom who is homeschooling her children, you don’t get raises. You get piles of laundry. You get dishes and dust. As you change diapers and scrub toilets and help little hands form letters on a page, you sometimes ask God whether the teeny-tiny seeds that you’re sowing really matter.

But most of those seeds won’t bear fruit until years down the road. So, in the in-between time, you wonder.

I know I’m called to this but is it enough?

For me, photographs capture the joy of sowing. Others might simply see a jar of jam, a batch of newly sharpened pencil crayons or a trail through the forest. But these things have a deeper meaning for me. When I get discouraged or tired, I look through my pictures. And I’m reminded that serving my family really does matter and that it matters most.

Even when the fruit isn’t yet evident.

Each photograph represents a seed sown into the generations to come.

Whether you are balancing a career or are home full-time, what you sow into your children matters. Life is made up of moments. And little moments produce big things.

Moms, you’re sowing into eternity!

However you choose to remind yourself of that, don’t ever lose sight of the importance of mustard seed moments.