I Got Nothing Done Today
So many people who know I stay home, after time has gone by and I meet up with them here and there, the first thing they ask me is, "So what do you do everyday?"
And it is a question that only arises by those who are usually overworked and disgruntled by the fact I stay home. I'm in my mid-forties. And I remember the day that my youngest started attending Kindergarten full-time. Those same people gave me so much grief and a not-so-good attitude when they thought I should rush out and get a job and I didn't. I made a choice and felt in my heart that my family needed me to be at home. Sure, I could have worked. And at one point, I did work for a year. But I still have children living at home and they needed me to be there for them. They had questions about life. They were starved when they burst into the door from school. They needed me to hang out with them and teach them how to navigate the complexities of life as they grew and developed from children to adolescents. Life is amazingly complex and they needed a guide who knows them like no one else, to walk with them in it. Mothers are these people. Fathers are great providers and they protect and will arise when the need is dire, but Mothers are the spiritual antennae of the entire home and all who live there and those who come and go. It is a lot for a woman to take into her tender spirit and have to process with all the help of the Divine to do this thing called "Motherhood" well. It is a full-time position that doesn't end even when the night hours find heads nestled on their fluffy pillows. Even at night, Mothers are thinking of their family and the issues each one of her children faces. She is thinking of their futures and facing her own fears with tears and prayer. She is overwhelmed at times with the difficulties of marriage and the needs each person has. She has her ear to the mouth of God as she takes in all that she feels in all of it combined. Sometimes a Mother doesn't do well and she takes it all in and it has irritated her spirit and she bites back. A mother needs time to process her spiritual role in all of it. She may not know she needs this and may not get it because of the pressures of all around to be more than what she can handle. To do more than she can handle. To provide more than she can handle.
When a woman is asked the question, "So what did you do today?", it irritates her on so many levels that she can't really explain. That question feels like an attack on all levels. The ones who ask are usually the ones who have been able to leave the home and go to a job where they are paid to do something that benefits the ones who provide a salary.
So dear and precious Mother, when those well-meaning folk ask questions like the kind I mentioned above, just smile and say to them, "I got nothing done today." And then invite them into your warm and loving home for a piece of fresh baked banana bread and a cup of exquisite coffee that you spent time learning to craft so that everyone who walks in your door can be blessed and rejuvenated by its loving warmth. Guide them to a spot on your couch and offer them a nice soft blanket and let them take a load off their feet.
Just let the blessing that you are soak in. And ignore the rest.
Let all of this remind you of the joy and heartache and all that you do in all its various degrees and levels of spiritual and physical care for your family and the people God's sends your way. Stay blessed. And continue to bless.
And it is a question that only arises by those who are usually overworked and disgruntled by the fact I stay home. I'm in my mid-forties. And I remember the day that my youngest started attending Kindergarten full-time. Those same people gave me so much grief and a not-so-good attitude when they thought I should rush out and get a job and I didn't. I made a choice and felt in my heart that my family needed me to be at home. Sure, I could have worked. And at one point, I did work for a year. But I still have children living at home and they needed me to be there for them. They had questions about life. They were starved when they burst into the door from school. They needed me to hang out with them and teach them how to navigate the complexities of life as they grew and developed from children to adolescents. Life is amazingly complex and they needed a guide who knows them like no one else, to walk with them in it. Mothers are these people. Fathers are great providers and they protect and will arise when the need is dire, but Mothers are the spiritual antennae of the entire home and all who live there and those who come and go. It is a lot for a woman to take into her tender spirit and have to process with all the help of the Divine to do this thing called "Motherhood" well. It is a full-time position that doesn't end even when the night hours find heads nestled on their fluffy pillows. Even at night, Mothers are thinking of their family and the issues each one of her children faces. She is thinking of their futures and facing her own fears with tears and prayer. She is overwhelmed at times with the difficulties of marriage and the needs each person has. She has her ear to the mouth of God as she takes in all that she feels in all of it combined. Sometimes a Mother doesn't do well and she takes it all in and it has irritated her spirit and she bites back. A mother needs time to process her spiritual role in all of it. She may not know she needs this and may not get it because of the pressures of all around to be more than what she can handle. To do more than she can handle. To provide more than she can handle.
When a woman is asked the question, "So what did you do today?", it irritates her on so many levels that she can't really explain. That question feels like an attack on all levels. The ones who ask are usually the ones who have been able to leave the home and go to a job where they are paid to do something that benefits the ones who provide a salary.
So dear and precious Mother, when those well-meaning folk ask questions like the kind I mentioned above, just smile and say to them, "I got nothing done today." And then invite them into your warm and loving home for a piece of fresh baked banana bread and a cup of exquisite coffee that you spent time learning to craft so that everyone who walks in your door can be blessed and rejuvenated by its loving warmth. Guide them to a spot on your couch and offer them a nice soft blanket and let them take a load off their feet.
Just let the blessing that you are soak in. And ignore the rest.
Let all of this remind you of the joy and heartache and all that you do in all its various degrees and levels of spiritual and physical care for your family and the people God's sends your way. Stay blessed. And continue to bless.
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