Empty Nest

• 1 min. read • grade level: 7

Although our husband must always come first, many of us mothers find our hearts bound up in the life of our children. Of course I knew that our children would move along someday, but I found myself unprepared for the pain I felt when our first child left home. Even though I knew she was doing well, I felt incomplete as my nest began to empty. Like Job I longed, “Oh that I were as in months ... when my children were about me!” (Job 29:2-5²Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; ³When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness; ⁴As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle; ⁵When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me; (Job 29:2‑5)). I have since discovered that a lot of mothers find this hard. It helped me to remember that “to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and ... a time to lose” (Ecc. 3:1-9).

Philippians 4:11¹¹Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. (Philippians 4:11) helped me as well: “I have learnt in those circumstances in which I am, to be satisfied” (JND translation). God wants us to be satisfied with our circumstances whatever they are. It’s easy to be always wanting what is not. Sometimes we are so busy we wish for a break, and then when the house is too quiet we wish our children home again. Perhaps when our children are small we wish them more grown up, and when they are big we wish them small again. The Spanish Bible translates Philippians 4:11¹¹Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. (Philippians 4:11) simply, “Content with the present.” I wrote out this verse and hung it where I could read it often to challenge myself to be content with whatever my present circumstances were — a full quiver or an emptying one, dirty clothes or an empty hamper.