For the Women We Forgot to Appreciate

Our culture craves the spotlight. It rewards the curated, the celebrated, the career-defining, and the shareable. We’re told to live a life worth photographing, posting, promoting. The message is clear: if it doesn’t trend, it might not matter.

But not all worthy lives are lived in the glow of screens. Some women many women have given themselves to a kind of glory the world has forgotten how to see. They are the mothers and wives who labored in kitchens and nurseries, not boardrooms and blogs. Who raised families instead of following followers. And for too long, we’ve failed to thank them enough.

The Lie They’ve Heard Too Often

Some of these women, now watching grown children go off into the world, find themselves questioning if their years at home mattered. They recount the diapers changed, the meals made, the errands run, the scraped knees kissed. They remember bedtime stories, science projects, birthday cakes, tears soothed in the dark. But as they look back, the enemy whispers a question: “What have you really done with your life?”

It’s the same lie that told Eve she was missing out. That a life poured out in quiet faithfulness is somehow a small life. And it’s not just the world whispering this lie sometimes it’s our silence as husbands, sons, and brothers that gives it power.

Heaven’s View of Home

But God sees differently. “Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all’” (Proverbs 31:28–29). These women are not invisible to heaven. Their faithfulness, often hidden from Instagram and career accolades, is profoundly visible to the One who matters most.

These women built homes not just houses. They provided industry, counsel, and warmth. They gave birth to and nurtured generations. They dressed in strength and dignity and quietly changed the world from the inside out. While the world promoted careers and influence, they embraced sacrifice and service. And they did so without applause.

The Quiet Glory of the Generalist

Our society honors the specialist the person who can do one thing exceptionally well. But motherhood is the art of the generalist. A mother must be a cook, a nurse, a counselor, a teacher, a coach, a pastor, and a thousand things more sometimes all before noon.

G.K. Chesterton captured it perfectly: “How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe?” The world may not give awards for nurturing souls, but heaven does. And the truth is, the task of motherhood is gigantic not because it is narrow, but because it is vast beyond comprehension.

When the Work Walks Away

There comes a point when the house is quieter. The children have grown. The rooms are tidier, but the woman who filled them with life feels the ache of empty space. She wonders if her years were well spent. The grocery bills are smaller. The laundry piles are thinner. And the gray hairs come faster. She misses the days she once thought would never end.

But these years were not wasted. They were given. Laid down in love. Woven into the fabric of eternity.

Why We Must Speak

And so, to these women our mothers, our wives, our sisters in Christ hear this: thank you. Thank you for choosing a path that often felt thankless. Thank you for the unseen hours, the prayers whispered over cribs, the meals cooked in weariness, the countless sacrifices made in love. Your life is not small. It is grand in God’s eyes.

The world may never see your crown. But one day, He will place it on your head.

And to the men reading this let’s not leave our mothers and wives to wonder if it was all worth it. Let’s learn again to rise up and call them blessed. Let’s praise them in public, not just in private. Let’s drown out the world’s lies with heaven’s truth.

Let’s make sure our daughters grow up in homes where motherhood is not belittled, but honored. Let’s raise our sons to value faithfulness over fame, and service over spotlight.

As Proverbs 31:31 commands: “Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.” Let that praise begin now.

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