Work

I just spent the last 2 weeks with my grandma. She is 72 years old, still cuts her own grass, hangs all her laundry to dry, and keeps her house immaculate. She literally never sits still. One day during the boys' naptime I told her that she should take a nap too. (We had just returned from a 10 hour road trip). She said, "Hon, if I sit down for a second, I'll fall asleep, so I just have to keep moving." That is when I reminded her that the purpose of a nap is to fall asleep.

If you know me even a little bit, you know that working hard is not my forte. I like to rest. I like to read. I like to do short little crafty things that do not take much diligence. I like to watch movies. I like to cook. But I do not like to work, and certainly not without breaks.

Then I read this and I realized that my children will never learn to work hard if I am not modeling it for them. Daily. They are learning from me right now, whether I am conciously training them or not.

And then I read our book-club book for this month. It takes place during the turn of the last century. The main character describes doing laundry. (And I thought my seven steps were bad.) Let's just say I won't be complaining about doing laundry anytime soon. This girl never stopped. She had to do everything herself, like slaughtering a hog, washing clothes, growing and canning vegetables, etc. And every night she would still mop the kitchen floor before she went to bed. All I know is that if I had worked as hard as she had all day long, I would have let that floor wait til later.

All that to say, I have been convicted over and over this week about work. I think I let myself get away with too much. I regularly disregard my duty as a wife and mother and tell myself that I deserve a break. Our culture tells us that we need 'me-time' and though down-time and time alone can be wonderful, that is not what we should focus on. We live as a family, each with our roles and duties. We work together first so that we can play together later.

(Some of you out there might actually need to take a break - so if you are one of those dutiful, hard-working moms, make yourselves a cup of tea and sit for a minute. I write these thoughts from over here on the other side, where I need to get up off of my well-rested bum and get to work!)