A book titled “The Invisible Woman: When God Sees” by Nicole Johnson claims (I have not read the book) to spotlight mothers and their jobs that seem to be thankless and invisible to most other people. To help illustrate this point, the author provides the following scenario:
One day a man showed up on the construction site of one of the great cathedrals and saw a builder carving a tiny bird into a beam that would eventually be covered over by the roof. Puzzled, the man asked the worker, "Why are you putting so much time and effort into something no one will ever see?" It is reported that the builder replied, "Because God sees.
In my experience, there are many “invisible” jobs in addition to the job of parenthood. I know in my “day” job, I do many MANY things that people don’t know about. Every now and then they become aware of something and say, “I had no idea you did that.” We ALL do things for other people and for the church that no one thanks us for or perhaps even knows about. When Bonnie was our church treasurer, she used to write a check directly to our church custodian. Then when I accepted the position, we found out that any employee needs to be paid through the conference financial office for tax purposes. So now, twice a month, I must additionally remember to approve our custodian’s online timesheet, if I forget to do this then she won’t be paid. Then when the conference sends me a bill, I write a check reimbursing them for what they have paid to our custodian. No one has ever thanked me for doing this specific task, and I don’t expect anyone to. It is something that simply comes with the position.
Mothers have a thankless job. If they ever do get thanked, it comes much later when their children are grown and realize how much their mother or father did for them. Doing something for God and His church is the same. Just because no one, or limited people, know we are doing something does that mean it’s not important? Of course not. As the author above says, “God sees.” And the Bible admonishes us that “whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men” (Colossians 3:23). If you do something just to be recognized then your heart is not in the right place. If I do something for Ryan and I’m waiting to hear him say, “thank you for doing that I appreciate it,” but instead he doesn’t say anything am I justified in feeling a bit miffed? Did I do it to be kind to him or to get praised? Pride is detrimental to us, and we must be on guard.
Does that mean we should never thank anyone for doing anything? No, of course not. However, we must make sure our hearts are in the right place both in our motivation for doing things and in the thanks we receive. The Bible has examples of people being thanked but more often people are giving thanks to God. “Jesus answered, ‘If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me…’” (John 8:54). Even Jesus did not praise Himself but gave all the glory to God and God turns around and give it back to Jesus. “We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Anything truly good comes from God and not from within ourselves. Our best defense when we are tempted to feel underappreciated is to remember that “God sees” and we can redirect our attention from ourselves to Him, thanking Him for enabling us to do all the things we do whether those things are for our children, for the church, or for the larger community.