Daily Program

The Impact of the Mundane

Series: Metamorphosis of a Mom: An Interview With Janet Lynn Salomon

Leslie Basham: Former figure skater, Janet Lynn Salomon, says that being a parent requires practice and training. It doesn't require perfection.

Janet Lynn Salomon: No, we're not always going to do everything right. And, no, there are no guarantees but it's like with skating, if I've trained and practiced for a performance, there was a lot better chance that I was going to do well than if I didn't do any of the training at all.

Leslie Basham: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss for Wednesday, March 24.

The athletes competing in this week's world figure-skating championships spend hours on their triple-toe-loops and double soukous. If they can work so hard on skating, why can't we work on something that matters even more? Parenting. Here's Nancy.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Seeing sweet contentment on a child's face has more value than seeing a perfect 6.0 for a performance. Do you know who said those words?

Well, it's our guest this week on Revive Our Hearts. Her name is Janet Lynn Salomon. And many of you remember the sweetheart of skating from the early 70s, Janet Lynn, who was a world champion figure-skater recently inducted into the world figure-skating Hall of Fame.

And she's here to talk with us this week, not about figure-skating, though that's an important part of her story. But she is here to talk about how the Lord gave her a heart for home, for marriage and for family.

Janet, welcome back to Revive Our Hearts.

Janet Lynn Salomon: Thank you, Nancy. It's wonderful to be here.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Now, you knew something about high scores in the field of skating. But the Lord brought you to a point as you were in the middle of a lucrative career, you were winning championships, you were skating around the world, you were getting all kinds of applause and ovations and the Lord brought you to the point--at the time where you had a husband and three young sons--of realizing that you had a choice, and that He wanted you to come back into your home to support your husband in his career direction and to be a fulltime mom to those children.

Janet Lynn Salomon: He did. And it was a very difficult struggle at the time, as I have said, it was a metamorphosis for me. But it was a beautiful illustration of "God makes all things beautiful in His time," when we obey Him and do what He wants us to do.

That statement that you read had to do with me learning that I had traded something that was temporary for something that was eternal. And the temporary something was ovations after skating or getting a good mark or getting public recognition for what I was doing, which I was getting a lot of.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: And more than you get when you come in the home. You don't get that immediately in your home.

Janet Lynn Salomon: Well, you don't probably get that very much at all in your home.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: So your children rise up and call you blessed (reference to Proverbs 31:28)

Janet Lynn Salomon: Except from faithful husbands who honor their wives and know what they do in their home. As my husband has always said that what I am doing at home is so very important. And he has always, always supported me in that.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: He's really encouraged and affirmed you as a wife and mom, hasn't he?

Janet Lynn Salomon: He has very much so, yeah.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: And I think it's important, for we do have some men listeners, for men to realize that they really can help their wives by letting them know that they believe that what they're doing in the home is so vital.

Janet Lynn Salomon: Well, it seems that sometimes we wonder, what is it that we do? What do we do in a home when we've been out, you know, so busy in a career, whatever.

Well, I came home and I started learning about just, you know, spending extra time with my children, starting to get to know who they were, what was on their hearts, what was on their minds. What were their talents and skills? What had God given to them? How could I nurture that?

I have found that this job at home can be a totally fulltime job because there is so much to do--I can't even always get it done when I'm home all the time--in really addressing the needs of our children and our husbands.

And then if we have extra time, going out and addressing the needs of others who have burdens that are maybe too heavy to carry at the time. And it has been such a blessing to me.

But, as I said before, it's a struggle. It's a holy struggle because the esteem that I got in my career was so wonderful and it was so uplifting and it made me feel so good.

And to be totally frank, mothers at home get no esteem from society anymore. And I realize that this void that I was feeling, well, it was that esteem.

And the person I had to go to for that esteem was, first of all God, because I realized it is His love for me where my esteem and my worth lie. Anyway, it is not any temporary thing. And then, the second person who esteemed my work at home was my husband for which I've always been very thankful.

And my purpose and hope is to re-create a vision for mothers who really are called to be at home, to see that it is a sacred mission that we are on to build the lives of children.

Someone has said that it is better to build children than repair men. And, as we look around us at society, we need to build children. And mothers and fathers are a very important part of that--they need to be there to build their children. And God wants us to do that.

And, no, we're not always going to do everything right. And, no, there are no guarantees. But it's like with skating--if I've trained and practiced for a performance, there was a lot better chance that I was going to do well than if I didn't do any of the training at all.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: And yet, you're talking about this great vision of motherhood, and its eternal value and eternal rewards and it's a great sacred mission.

And yet, Janet, don't you feel a lot of days--and, by the way, we haven't told our listeners that you had those three sons early on, but then you had two other sons God gave as encores!

Janet Lynn Salomon: Encores! Two more sons--I have five sons.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Oh, you still have two in the home.

Janet Lynn Salomon: Yes.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Younger sons and I just admire you as a mother of five sons. But doesn't it seem some days like what you're doing is just so daily and so routine and so non-glamorous?

Janet Lynn Salomon: Mundane is the word I use.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Mundane. Mundane.

Janet Lynn Salomon: Yes. It is very much so. And when I had all five boys at home, I would really sometimes struggle with, Why am I cleaning the bathrooms. What purpose is [there] in this cleaning, you know, in keeping a home. It seems so mundane.

And there are two things I'd like to say.

One is that, as a figure-skater, the training that I did every day, nobody saw. And that is what helped me become successful. It was mundane.

And the other thing that I learned is that the chores of keeping a home don't have to be empty and mindless because during that time I started realizing that you can use that time to contemplate the issues facing your family--the issues of life.

And [there is] the time for prayer during those jobs. Sometimes I got my very best ideas while I was doing the so-called mundane tasks of the home.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Not to speak of the fact that you're creating for your family a refuge and you're training lives!

Janet Lynn Salomon: Yes, I want my home to be a place of refuge for my family, from the, you know, you go out into the world and there are battles of life that are fought on a daily basis.

There's good and there's evil and there are, you know, there are difficulties. Well, I want my home to be a place of refuge and a place of training. And it's a holy, sacred mission that we are on. And the home is"¦it's the very first part of building a healthy society.

And I have this little poem here that I just love because it speaks about the importance of the little things that a mother does in her home.

Poem

Janet Lynn Salomon: Those little things we do in our home to teach and to train.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Janet, in one of your articles I read this line, I thought was so meaningful. It said, "Little obscure jobs done with love become the important things. Little things have great power to transform hearts and values."

You're really talking about having a kind of love as a wife and a mom that is willing to make the sacrifices to do the little things and to do them realizing that they're smaller pieces of a bigger picture a bigger puzzle.

And that those little obscure jobs done with love are not unimportant. They are becoming the important things as you're shaping and molding and training lives, not just surviving but really building castles, building palaces, building homes, building hearts. And through the investment of a mother's love, a wife's love, in those little things day after day, lives are being built and transformed.

Now, I don't know how you feel about the little things that are part of your day, as a wife, as a mom; but can I say that if you're in the place where God has you and fulfilling His purpose for your life, that there is no such thing as a little thing.

Every act of obedience, every act of sacrifice, if done as an act of worship and an expression of love is important. And you are planting seeds that are going to one day reap a beautiful harvest, a rich harvest. You're going to see the fruit in days and years to come, of the little investment that you're making today.

Can I say, one of the things we want to do here at Revive Our Hearts is to affirm you as a woman of God in making those choices to do the little things that are not for self-gratification, they're not the things that get the great accolades and standing ovations. But they are the things that are really making a difference in the lives of your family members and ultimately in our society as a whole.

So, I want to pray for you, especially if you're a wife and a mom and you're in your home and you may be feeling isolated or like what you're doing isn't real important. I just want to pray and thank the Lord for you and pray that the Lord would encourage you today.

Lord, thank You for moms and wives who are today serving You by serving their husbands and their children. And I know many of them are making enormous sacrifices to do that and laying down their own ambitions.

I think about how my own mom laid down her own career plans and a remarkable career that she might have had because she wanted to build a family, to build a home.

And, Lord, I just thank You for the fruit in my life today that's the result of the sacrifices she made. And I pray for these women that are facing those choices today that they would find joy in the midst of the mundane and would realize that even those little things are so important in the building of hearts and homes to glorify You.

So, Lord, give us an attitude of gratitude in whatever our calling, as we do those little things, may they be done for You and for the sake of Your great kingdom.

And then, Lord, encourage these women, particularly those who are in their homes today doing that tough work of shaping and molding lives. Would You encourage them and strengthen them and give them joy in the journey. I pray for Jesus' sake. Amen.

Leslie Basham: That was Nancy Leigh DeMoss encouraging us to keep doing the little things that we do for others and how much it encourages them. If you know a mom who's discouraged, get them a copy of today's program. You can order it on cassette or CD. Our number is 1‑800‑569‑5959. Or, go on-line at ReviveOurHearts.com and e-mail a transcript of today's program to a friend.

When you visit our Web site today, you'll find a transcript of Janet Lynn Salomon's Mother's Day talk Nancy quoted from at the beginning of the program. You can order CDs or cassettes by mail or just drop us a note telling us what you've learned about becoming a mom.

Janet Lynn Salomon says that sometimes just having a different perspective on the power a mom can have is all we need to encourage us in that role. She and Nancy will discuss that tomorrow. We hope you can rejoin us for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss is a ministry partnership of Life Action Ministry.

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