For Such A Time as This

        Growing up I had dreams of being a wife and a mother. Like most little girls, I wanted the cute house, the handsome, loving husband, and the nicely dressed, well-behaved children.  I wanted to cook family meals, make magical memories out of holidays and special events, and enjoy the laughter and bliss I knew a family could bring.  ENTER REALITY.   I have been blessed to aquire many of these amazing family attributes I desired as a girl, however a little more muddy and loud than I had anticipated.  Raising a family is insanely exhausting.  The to-do list is never complete…and if you think it is, think again…. you know there’s a dirty dish in your sink right now even though you just filled the DISHWASHER!!!  More than the ever present dirty laundry and dinner needing to be cooked, is the growing need for our family units protection.

 

   Todays main stream culture does not celebrate the family unit. If anything, from this moms perspective, it is out-right trying to destroy it!  Why get married? 50% of marriages end in divorce.  Why have kids with a spouse? I don't want to wait and I can do it on my own.  What's the point in taking my family to church?  I can tell them what's right and wrong!  It’s hard to wrap my head around, but my story of being married for 20 years with 4 kids, living in the same home, and regularly attending church every Sunday is turning out to be just plain “weird” to most people out there. 

 

    Live in the moment, do what makes you happy, tear down any establishment ideas are what fill the air waves now adays.  This world is trying to lure the fathers out of their marriages or away from their homes and kids, the mothers into addiction fueled by guilt or inadequacies, and entice our children to feel-good-at-the-moment destructive behaviors or down paths they shouldn’t follow all in the name of popularity….just to name a few. Then they proceed to tell me as a parent I can’t do anything about it because the child needs to be free.  Well guess what… I know differently.

 

     Esther is one of the only women in the Bible with a book named after her, which right away should make you want to know more about her. (what makes her so special??)  It's a story of humble beginnings that changed in a moment from orphaned girl to beautiful Queen of Persia.  Esther all of a sudden had a place in the world… a voice.  Her people, the Jews, were set to be killed by proclamation of the King, who was influenced my the Jews archenemy, Haman.  Her uncle, Mordecai, heard of the plan and begged Esther to speak to the King and plead with him for her people. At first, Esther was scared. She didn’t dare speak up to the King who could have her killed just for entering his presence without permission. Then Mordecai said this, “Don’t think that just because you live in the king’s house you’re the one Jew who will get out of this alive, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out.  Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this.”(Esther 4:12-14 MSG)  Mic drop Mordecai!!  That was all Esther needed to hear. She responded with, “I will go to the King, If I die, I die." She devised a plan to fast and pray then speak to the king.  She succeeded in exposing the evil Haman and changing the Kings decree to kill all the Jews. The Jews went on to destroy all their enemies, Mordecai was given Haman's home and job, and all the Jews lived in happiness and celebrated that joyful occasion every year.  The End.

 

   Phew, that could have easily gone a different way.  Esther could have gotten scared and chickened out.  She could have looked around her posh new lifesyle and decided, “Nah, I’ve got it made here, who cares what happens to the rest of them.”,  or in her haste, Esther could have run to the king about the issue before God's timing, made the king mad, and gotten herself killed as well as all of her people.  SO whats my point….

 

    Esther was put in that position for "just such a time as this”.  We as leaders of our families are called in the same way.  We are placed here for such a time as this, to fight against a culture looking to destroy our families from the inside out. Mordecai explained to Esther that God would send help and deliverance for His people from somewhere else if she didn’t help, and then her family would not experience the joy from it.  God’s plan will be carried out whether we help him or not, but do we want to be wiped out from the destruction or held up above it?  Christian parents are on the front lines of this corrupting culture battle.  We have been placed in a position to stand against the culture and we need to be as brave as Esther was, in standing up and speaking out to fight for our families. 

 

   I love the story of Esther and knew I wanted to write about her in some way but didn’t know how until I spoke to my Dad.  He reminded me that Christians are placed by God in our worlds, homes, work, church, ect. to make a difference…just like Esther was. So if you take anything from her story, take the courage.  We all need courage to stand up for what’s true and just, where ever we have been placed in this life.  

 

Now put on your war paint (in my case-eyeliner and mascara) and get on the battlefield parents…start a family, then go to church!