Building the Next Generation

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

Leslie Basham: Janet Lynn Salomon has a great perspective on the power of a mom.

Janet Lynn Salomon: A mother who has faith in God has a very powerful position because she is impacting the future generations. She is impacting the future of what our world will be.

Leslie Basham: It's Thursday, March 25; and this is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

Diapers, dishes, homework, carpool. A mom's work can seem so trivial. But in the middle of mundane tasks, she's actually helping to build the next generation that will shape the world. Let's explore the power of motherhood with Nancy and her guest.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: We've been talking this week with Janet Lynn Salomon. Janet Lynn was a five time U.S. skating champion and had a remarkable career, not just once but twice in the skating field interrupted by several years. And when she returned to skating, she had a husband and three small sons at the time and through a process that she describes as a metamorphosis and something of a struggle, God led her to the point where she left that lucrative career and all the standing ovations and the recognition that it gave to her and made the tough choice to come back into her home.

And as she did, God began to give her a heart for her home. Janet, thank you so much for sharing your story with us this week on Revive Our Hearts and the inspiration that you have been to not only to millions of little girls who watched you years ago and thought that they wanted to grow up and be a figure skater, but now the inspiration you're being to women to be wives and moms and homemakers. Thank you for your life that gives a vision for doing that.

Janet Lynn Salomon: Well, thank you. I have not arrived. I have a lot to learn yet. But if I can help women to learn some of the things that I have learned in the process of being home. I've been a homemaker for about 24 years now and it is a process that I have learned that there is more depth in homemaking than I ever could have imagined when I was skating.

And I have learned that very many of the things that I learned as a figure skater, I could not have imagined that this would have happened but I learned that they can be applied to my home and to homemaking.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: And I can imagine, in fact, I want us to talk today about some of the things that women who are considering coming into a career of homemaking--objections that they may feel or that they may raise.

And one of those would be, Is it not just a waste of my education, my training, my experience, my abilities, to leave a career and to come into my home and be a homemaker and you're saying that many of the things that you experienced in the skating career before you started your family are things that have actually helped you to be a better homemaker.

Janet Lynn Salomon: Very much so. And you know, there is a lot to say about having an education and then giving up the career that you've trained for. I spent 21 years of my life training for skating. And when I gave it up the first time, it was because I was sick.

And the second time was to be home with my children and support my husband in the career that he was pursuing. It was very hard because I thought, What do I do with all those skills and talent that I had?

And as I was home for awhile, I started realizing that so many things that I learned from skating could be applied to my home and to raising my children. And, in fact, who would be a better person to be raising my children than me; who has had all of this experience and this knowledge about things that I can pass on to them.

And it makes their, you know I think, that it has made their lives a little bit richer for the experiences that I have had that I have been able to glean information from or knowledge from that I have been able to use in teaching them and training them.

Mine was not in an academic sense; it was in a different sense. But I took the kind of training that I had as a figure skater and realized that can also be transferred to the academic area.

You know, the discipline and the hard work, the alertness that I had to have--finding love in what I was doing even if I didn't like it. I didn't like all my training. Some of it was not fun and some of it was painful.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Just hard work. A lot of it.

Janet Lynn Salomon: Yes. Anyway, so I was able to find ways to take what I had learned and to apply it to raising my children and helping to find God's purposes for them and how to build them as children. You could think of it as a waste, but you could also think of it as, I am applying it in the very best place that it could possibly be applied by building a new generation.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: I think there are a lot of women, and I'm thinking particularly of many young Christian women today, who are deciding not even to have families but choosing the pathway of a career and not wanting to have children or those who do have children and are not eager to be at home with them, who feel that a career of motherhood and homemaking is not as fulfilling or creative or rewarding as a career outside the home.

Janet Lynn Salomon: I did a whole talk to a high school group on the career. It was Career Day and I did it on homemaking and if you think about all of the activities that a mother has to engage in in order to be an effective homemaker and manage her home properly, it takes the whole range of careers outside the home and it takes little bits of each of those in order to manage a home well.

There are so many things if you are creative in your home that you can be doing. Chauffer is an obvious one. But, to create a home also takes creative ideas in other areas.

However, some women, you know, they think that, Oh my personality--and this is probably what I thought because I was never at home; I didn't have a life that allowed me to learn homemaking skills before I was at home or to be around children--maybe my personality doesn't fit being at home. Maybe it's not something that I can do.

But, what I've learned in coming home and starting to realize that, I can adapt to loving my children. It's the heart in me. It's what God has put in me--to love my children and to care for them and to create a place of refuge and a home for them and my husband.

It is a very important task and I'll give an illustration here. At one point in time, our older children had learned chess at school or whatever and our younger children were coming along and I was trying to learn chess also a little bit, though I'm not good at all, but just to be able to play with the younger ones.

And I read this book and it talked about how on the chess board, the queen and the bishop, which represents to me the mother at home and the church, which is her faith. The book was saying the queen and the bishop together are the most powerful pieces on the board in this chess game.

And I thought, That is such an illustration of a mother who has faith in God. She has a very powerful position because she is impacting the future generations. She is impacting the future of what our world will be. And I don't find that to be a waste of time at all. I find that to be one of the most important jobs in the world.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: And you know, even women who don't have children of their own, maybe have never married or maybe God has not blessed them with children, there is a sense in which they can fulfill this calling and mission as well.

Janet Lynn Salomon: Well I think wherever you are, even if you find that you cannot be at home right now, God can give you a heart for your home and your children will know that.

But women who"¦the opportunity for having a home may have passed them by, however, they can still uphold the home and encourage the home as a high and holy calling in other people and maybe take some of the burdens off of them or have a ministry to people who need a little bit of a break sometimes.

And motherhood is a very taxing job. It takes every bit of your physical, emotional, spiritual and mental abilities to do it. And to have someone come in and say, "We'll give you a few hours off and take good care of your children because God has called us to do that" is a huge blessing.

Or just to say words of encouragement to someone. I have held onto words of encouragement that someone has said to me and I will hold onto those for weeks because there is not that much encouragement for mothers at home. So, just words of encouragement.

If you see a mother who is doing a good job with her children, tell her that. If you see a father who is showing love for his children in a remarkable way or just in, you know, you see the closeness, tell them that it's a good thing, those words.

I think we were talking earlier, Nancy, about the words in the tongue is life and death (referencing Proverbs 18:21) and you can give life to someone's soul and spirit by just giving words of encouragement.

Leslie Basham: That was Janet Lynn Salomon encouraging us to reach out to parents and give words of encouragement about the good job that they're doing. Nancy Leigh DeMoss will return in just a moment.

Nancy has been talking with Janet all this week about the value of motherhood and if you missed any of her story, you can order it on CD or cassette for a suggested donation of $5 for the cassette and $7 for the CD. To order just call 1-800-569-5959 or visit ReviveOurHearts.com.

We've also put together a booklet that tells Janet's story. It's our gift to you. Just ask for it when you make a donation of any amount to the ministry of Revive Our Hearts. Our goal is to call women to freedom, fullness and fruitfulness in Christ.

If you share that passion, would you consider becoming a monthly supporter of Revive Our Hearts? You can send your donation to Revive Our Hearts, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska 68501. We all need encouragement as a mom and on tomorrow's broadcast, we'll get just that. Now here's Nancy.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: I want to close today's program by sharing some words of encouragement that were written by our guest, Janet Lynn. And I think these words will encourage you in your role.

Janet said "The job of being a wife, mother and homemaker, I consider to be the most important job in the world. It has demanded of me as much, if not more, than being a world-class athlete. The creativity in homemaking has as many possibilities as the finest art. The possibility to impact the world is probably greater than in any other job. The impact is not only in this world but for eternity as well."

Song:

Leslie Basham:

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

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