A woman's function is laborious because it is gigantic

It's that time of the year: parents are taking their precious children and leaving them at college; some of the younger set will return to schools, and some will be homeschooled by their moms. All of these activities seem to contain built-in mom-angst: How will my child fare? Have I done everything I could to prepare them for this? How can the time fly so quickly? How can I let them go with so much yet to say and do?

This is the time of year that Moms (and Dads and others) need to remember that our children belong, not to us, but to the Lord. He is their God, and will rule and guide them or allow them to follow their own way as He sees fit. We need to be reminded to let them go.

And yet, being a mom is a very important job, not because their salvation depends upon us, but because God has given us a high and privileged calling to train them up in the way they should go. We should work tirelessly and vigorously to raise our children, not because they will benefit from it (which they will) but because it is our calling before God. When we stand before God at the end of time, He will be interested in how we used our privileges.

So this fall, Gentle Readers, as the mothers among you get back into the swing of things, remember the importance of your calling, remember the preciousness of your charges, and remember the greatness of our God.

How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about [arithmetic], and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute.
~G.K. Chesterton