What is your ministry?

"What is your ministry?"

The question hit me, and I'll confess, left me speechless.
Here I sat, surrounded by my children, by far an imperfect and failing sinner, but also a soul daily (let's face it, sometimes minutely) struggling to lift up my Cross and trying to follow Him.
To follow Him in the greatest calling of my life: the raising, training, and discipling of my children.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
Psalm 127:3-5

As I contemplated how to answer, my heart grieved what she so obviously missed to see:
The heritage and blessing that is my full time ministry: my children.
When did we, as Christians, lose sight of the amazing gift that is our children? Lose sight of the job training, the reaching of little hearts for the Lord, filling the earth with warriors for Christ, is?
The Bible says  our children are the fruit of the womb, a reward, a blessing, they are like arrows in the hand of a warrior. I don't think you can get much clearer than that: children are a wonderful and beautiful blessing from the Lord. 

A ministry is something you serve and work at, pray for, are diligent in, plan, give time and energy above and beyond, all things that define parenting at it's core. 
How can the Church grow, the words of Christ be heard throughout the world, if we do not take back the responsibility handed to us by the Lord Almighty, and raise our children to be warriors for Christ? To aim and shoot an arrow is to hit a mark, to send it out with a destination in mind, and that destination is the world. Our calling, to raise young men and women, to effectively minister outside our home, means we must hunker down and do our jobs to train and reach their young hearts.

The dictionary define's training as: 
To teach a particular skill or type of behavior through practice and instruction over a series of time.

The training of our children is not for the season before we can enroll them in school, or the church can take over ministering to them, it is a daily task directly given to us, as parents, by the Lord. 

"You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Deuteronomy 6:7

I don't write this saying I have hit my mark, that my children are aimed and ready. I type this as I struggle, to reach my children's hearts as well as train my own to let the sweet words of the gospel always be on my tongue. I struggle to have my actions showcase Him, my arms always be a steadfast stronghold for them. Daily I wake up, setting my heart to let my babies know they are my ministry, my joy, a blessed sacrifice I would willingly make again again. That I praise the Lord for them.

May I challenge you, dear mom, as we work together, to praise the Lord for the ministry He has set before us? To see the goal and train for the end, when we release our children from our homes, armed and ready for battle (for surely, this world is a strong battlefield ready to devour).
 Equip them, train them in truth and righteousness, do not grow weary of this most beautiful and precious ministry, your ministry, your children. 

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
 Proverbs 22:6

Amen.