The Many Faces of Me
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly writing challenge: “Ice, Water, Steam.”
No matter how much people may want to argue about the work of being a stay-at-home mom, the stark reality is that it IS a hard job, with benefits. The truth is, all jobs for women AND men are hard, relatively speaking. It is not harder for a mom of three who must leave every day to go to a 9 to 5 job than it is for the mom of three who stays at home with them all day. Each situation has its own difficulties and they vary from person to person.
We all wear different hats and juggle the needs of each job on a regular basis. As you pass through the stages of your life, those hats may change, but the realities of being all things while being just one person will be a constant. Just as water is always water, but it functions better for certain jobs while in different forms – so to do people. We adapt to the circumstances.
I am a woman. As a woman, I am a Christian, a friend, and a business person.
I am a wife. As a wife, I am a Christian, a friend, a lover, an account executive, an organizer, a chef, a maid, a fleet manager, and a buyer.
I am a mother. As a mother, I am a Christian, a friend, a teacher, a nurse, an organizer, an editor, a mediator, a guide, a buyer, and a personnel manager.
Some days I may only need to be one of those things – but on MOST days, I need to be ALL of them at the SAME time.
All of this makes me think of Deborah in Judges 4:4 – 5:31. Deborah wore many hats. She was a prophetess, a wife and a judge of Israel (Judges 4:4). In Judges 5:7 we learn that she was also a mother. Deborah managed to be all of these things and still judge the people of Israel from home (Judges 4:5). She went to war with her commander Barak, at his request, even though she knew her presence was not needed for victory (Judges 4:8-10). She juggled her hats very well!
I need to learn that it is all right to focus on one thing for the moment. I need to learn that choosing to be this thing in this moment does not take away from my being something else in another. I am “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) so I am able to be all the things that I am called to be. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 makes the point that there is a time for everything that needs to happen “under heaven”. I hope that all of us can find comfort in the fact that I do NOT have to do it ALL today. Lord willing if tomorrow comes, I will get done what I can, when I can and it WILL be enough.
“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven –
A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search an a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.”
Find peace in knowing when it is that you need to be all things to all people. Be you, the best YOU you can be, no matter which hat (or hats) it is that you are wearing and be glad to OWN them ALL!
Enjoy!
The Diligent Woman
www.thediligentwoman.com
So very true of you, but not of every woman. Some sacrifice one job for the sake of another. Usually it is the family that suffers.
I hope that in most cases that happens because they haven’t realized that they can balance all things, it just takes organizing. One of my frustrations with the feminist movement is how it tears down a woman’s confidence to be able to handle the things God made her capable of handling. The call for “equality” only lessens a woman in her own eyes, most of the time. The woman in Proverbs 31 was adept at management and certainly was not a “door mat”. If women would see themselves in God’s view they would realize that they can be so much more than what the world claims for them.