Elisabeth Elliot: People sometimes ask me if I find fulfillment in writing. Well, for me, writing is the hardest job I do, outside of praying. But I would certainly say that I like housework. God has given me both to do. Housework is easier for me than writing, but I am to lift up to God all the work that I do.

Lisa Barry: Well, I'm someone who enjoys writing more than I enjoy housework. My house will tell you that. Although I'll have to say, over the years God has helped me to improve in this area through His own practical ideas and the patience of my husband. What part of your task is laborious for you?

Today and all this week, Elisabeth Elliot is talking about the holy work of mothering. So if you've been tempted lately to think of your domestic duties as insignificant, think again. They may afford you your greatest opportunity for servanthood. We all know that's a trait that God loves. Find out more as we begin this Wednesday edition of Gateway To Joy.

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love." That's what the Bible says. "And underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot, talking again today about the holy work of mothering.

We've been thinking about that amazing greeting that a little peasant girl, in a village called Nazareth, received one day when she was, we assume, going about her usual housework, perhaps kneading bread, perhaps sweeping the floor, sewing. We don't know what she was doing.

But suddenly there was a visitor that she was not expecting. The angel greeted her with these words: "Hail, Mary, full of grace! The Lord is with you." Have you stopped to think about the fact that the Lord is with you? He made you a mother. I speak also to singles. Have thought about spiritual mothering?

Some of the most significant people in my life, those who have been like icons of spirituality and holiness, have been single women-women who never were married, women who never bore a child. As I speak on this subject of the holy work of mothering, think about spiritual mothering.

Titus 2:3-5 lays a very severe responsibility on all of us, that older women are to teach the younger women, "to love their husbands, to love their children, to be pure, to be chaste, not wine drinkers, not busy bodies." You know, to me it's a great sorrow that there seem to be very few older women who are willing to make themselves available to be mothers to those younger women. So many of them make the excuse, "Well, I raised my family. I've done my job. Now it's my turn to do something for myself."

You mothers who have young children, is it your desire to be the best mother, not only for your child, but also for God? I'm sure that it is. Mothering is a divine gift, not a problem, not an interruption, not a mistake. God is the Lord of life and death.

How is this divine gift to be received? As Mary received it. "Behold, the handmaiden of the Lord. Be it unto me, according to your word." Another way to translate it would be, "Let it happen. I belong to the Lord, body and soul. Let it happen as you say." Or "Here I am. I am the Lord's servant. As you have spoken, so be it."

I would suggest that you try that yourself. When you find yourself faced with a task, which perhaps is an odious one that you don't really enjoy, or a task which you feel is too big for you, or a task which you're terribly tired of because you've done it so many times for so many years, try putting yourself in God's presence and quietly saying, "Behold, the handmaiden of the Lord. Let it happen as You say. I belong to the Lord, body and soul." I do pray that you women who are listening will respond to the Lord's message, as Mary did.

Do you truly believe that God knows what He is doing? That He ordained you to be born? That He gave you that child and presided over every generation which preceded you and your child? It fascinates me to go back through the genealogy of our families, my mother's family and my father's family, and realize that the genes that were in those ancestors, whom I never knew, have in some way affected my life. God has ordained you to be born at exactly the date on which you were born and exactly the place and for exactly the purpose. He knows exactly what He is doing.

Every one of us has been placed in the keeping of other human hands, haven't we? Now as mothers, He places a child in our hands. He gives us grandchildren, too. It so happens that while I'm recording this, I'm sitting in my study at home and I've got three grandchildren in the house. Elisabeth, 18. Colleen, 11. And Theo, who is five. They have been told that they must be very quiet, in order not to make any background noise. They are being so quiet that I almost forget that they're here. But what a joy it has been for these grandparents to have our grandchildren come.

"It is a great mistake to suppose that those who have inherited the material for their life from suffering generations, and who have poor health and a timid approach to life, or some vice or weakness, have not been designed and planned by God as much as others, who seem luckier in the world's eyes. That which seems to be a crumbling point, alack! A thorn in the flesh is destined for God's glory, as surely as the rotting bones of Lazarus; as surely as the radiance of Mary of Nazareth."

Have you taken a timid approach to life? Do you have some vice or weakness? Do you suppose that God made a mistake when He designed and planned you? Everybody else seems luckier than you are. Let me remind you, if you have received Christ, He lives in you in a very deep and true spiritual sense. "I am crucified with Christ," Paul said. "Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me."

Christ lives in you. You are His chosen vessel, precisely designed for His use-in the kitchen, in the bedroom, in the laundry. Is it holy work to wash dishes? Yes, it is. Is it holy work to clean the bathtub? It is, indeed. Is it holy work to wash the clothes and iron them? It is when you offer it up to God. It becomes transformed.

People sometimes ask me if I find fulfillment in writing. Well, for me, writing is the hardest job I do, outside of praying. But I would certainly say that I like housework. God has given me both to do. Housework is easier for me than writing, but I am to lift up to God all the work that I do. God is not more impressed with my writing a book or preparing a radio message than He is with my keeping a clean house. If only I could help you to see that-to transfigure that hum-drum stuff into a lovely offering up, with thanksgiving, to the God who put you where you are!

You know the story of Brother Lawrence, a young man, centuries ago, who wanted to become a saint. He decided that the best thing to do would be to join a monastery. There he would be able to become a saint. He was dismayed when he learned what his assignment was to be. He was put in the kitchen to scrub pots. Imagine! Scrubbing pots! And yet it was there that he tells us that he learned to practice the presence of God.

I think of my friend, Debbie Rettew. She and her husband Bill adopted 19 children. They had four children of their own. Two of those four died. So they have 21 children, and ten of those children are seriously handicapped. Why would they take on ten seriously handicapped children, plus nine other children, perfectly normal children? Well, "Inasmuch as you've done it for one of the least of these, My brothers, you have done it for Me," Jesus said.

And then there's my friend Juana Michaels. You've perhaps heard her on this program, her amazing testimony. Well, when she recorded those programs, her baby had not been born. When the baby was born, it was discovered immediately that she had harelip and cleft palate. Shortly thereafter, they discovered that the baby had no eyeballs.

Did God make a mistake? That child is destined for God's glory, as is every other handicapped person. God doesn't make any junk. I think it was Ethel Waters who said, "God don't make no junk."

Are you a mother of a child like that? This is your holy work that God has assigned. It is your portion. Psalm 16:5 says, "Lord, You have assigned me my portion and my cup and have made my lot secure." God has measured out that portion precisely to the measure that you can bear. When you think that you can't bear anymore, just look up and say, "Father, help me. Help me to bear the yoke with You."

Take the yoke of Jesus Christ. He bears it with you. He always carries the heavier end of the cross, you know. Never for one moment does He leave you or forget you or forsake you, no matter how it feels or seems. Remember that you can offer up every task that God gives you to do. You can offer up your fears, your weaknesses, your sins. God knows how to handle every single one of them. Mothering is holy work.

Lisa Barry: Don't you wish you could have heavenly eyes for just a few minutes so you could see from an eternal perspective just how important mothering is? It's just so hard to imagine something we don't always feel. Mothering doesn't feel all that holy, so we need to take it by faith.

One way to boost that confidence is through the resources we've included in our Mother's Day packet. You'll receive four weeks of tape series, Glenda Revell's new book entitled WITH LOVE FROM A MOTHER'S HEART, a flip calendar, the booklet DO THE NEXT THING, and the booklet called TO SPIRITUAL MOTHERHOOD. All this is for the special price of $30.

You can send that, along with your request, to Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or call toll-free: 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. Our Internet ministry address is gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.

Tomorrow Elisabeth talks about how to teach your children to work. That's next time on Gateway To Joy.