Faith & Vocation: Julie Bettis

As part of a year long project focused on faith and vocation we are highlighting various parishioners by having them answer seven questions.

Meet Julie Bettis!

How long have you been in Seattle and what do you most enjoy and struggle with about living here?

The greater Seattle area has always been home to me, and I have lived in the city since my marriage five years ago. Many friends assumed I would struggle with the transition to city living, as I have always loved (and still do!) the wild spaces. However, I have found our little city to have its own generous stock of natural beauty. Of course humans can interact with God’s creation in many ways, not all of them positive, but something I have appreciated about the city is seeing how humans can step into their role as co-creaters by taking what God has given and creating with it — from simple gardens, to complex buildings and bridges. My favorite part of city living is definitely walking everywhere — from the grocery store to the doctor’s office to the library, I can do almost all of my errands on foot, which in fact gives my daily life in the city a slower, more reflective pace than life in the suburbs can encourage. The traffic is a definite downer, especially for family and friends who are reluctant to drive into the city to visit me. And the prevalent homelessness is hard to watch and hard to know how to engage with.

How long have you been at your current place of work and do you see this as a place of longevity? Why or why not?

My work is currently contained within the walls of my home. The two main parts are homemaking and child raising; the homemaking I see as a part of my life in some way indefinitely, though it may not always be full time. Because God has entrusted us with two sons (and a third on the way!) to train up, child raising will be on the front burner for the next 15 years or so.

Do you see your calling and your career as the same or different?

As a twenty-something single who felt called to be a wife and a mother, I would have said that if only I was given the opportunity, I would make that calling my career. But as the years went by and I remained single, I began to wonder: did I really have to wait for marriage and motherhood to live out my calling? Examining and reexamining both the Scriptures and the desires of my own heart, I came to a different understanding, that my calling was to live a life of love because I have been deeply and incredibly loved — something I could do no matter my life circumstances or method of supporting myself.

I do still have a profound sense of the sacredness of the roles of wife and mother, and I think especially the role of motherhood can be undervalued when it is in fact a world-shaping and Gospel preaching work. But my understanding of my calling not as motherhood but as living a life of love encourages me to have eyes to see beyond my home and children, and also will continue to give purpose to my days when my children are no longer in my home.

What are some of the things that you find most enjoyable about your work?

Snuggles. For a child to know he is unconditionally loved, and to be able to relax into your arms because of that knowledge and to cement that knowledge — well, it’s not just enjoyable, but it’s a pretty important part of my work, too. I also love seeing the lightbulb come on for my sons, whether it’s learning to balance on a bike or put on clothes or understand God as the true King. Another delight is seeing the world through their eyes as they learn to verbalize what they are seeing and how they are processing it. One son has questions about how things work that never occurred to me in four decades of life on this earth (What would happen if you touch the sky? Would you poke a hole in it?); the other has an imagination that is continually surprising me (apples resting on his plate are taking a nap; a puzzle with a missing piece is a zoo, and the empty space is where the gorillas live).

What do you find particularly challenging?

Maybe the inverse of what I find enjoyable, when the lightbulb does not come on and we have to repeat things I thought we had already covered. Also, questions are great for learning but sometimes I have to ask for a question pause, because I run out of steam for answering all of them. There is a constant aspect to motherhood that challenges the finite nature of the mother; I both have to be willing to continue on when I feel done, and also recognize that I cannot perfectly provide for all my boys’ needs.

How do you see your faith intersecting with your work?

Of all the things I hope to teach and expose my sons to, my faith is the one thing I absolutely don’t want them to miss. So it’s integrated in everything else I teach them. Because I believe that living out my faith is the best way to share it and also to show its beauty, and because my children see me in every mood, every state of health, every time of day, living out my faith becomes the heart of my work raising children.

If there was something the church could do to support you more, what might that look like?

I do feel supported by my church. A big part of this is my children are welcomed in as members of the body, loved and appreciated. I recognize that there are ways my family and I can’t participate right now because of the constraints of small children and their schedules and needs, but many seasons of life have various constraints, and we can certainly find ways to enter in. It’s also life-giving to have relationships through our community at church, with other families currently raising children, with singles who have a fresh appreciation for children, and with older couples who no longer have children in the home but remember these days and pray for us with grace and wisdom.