Don’t you have a job or something?

or, in other words:
The Most Magnificent Contribution Imaginable to Society

I am an enigma. I began my career blessed this way, and I am ending my career blessed this way.

Although we have had times when we had two incomes (one small), it was a rarity and never was it a priority.  My number one career has been to be a Homemaker.  Under that Title the subtitles are too numerous to count, and even more are added as life continues.

The world has never respected my career choice, and sometimes even the Christian world has not been nice about it.

After our first child and in a new town, we happily went to the local public library to receive our library cards.  When I signed up I was told I needed an ID.  A current drivers license was not good enough.  I pulled out two more which did not satisfy this angry civil servant.

“Don’t you have a job or something?”  I was incredulous to be treated so rudely, as if just being a citizen was not good enough to borrow taxpayer library books.  No, he wanted me to either be a student with an appropriate ID or have an employment ID.

Years later I had almost died of salmonella poisoning.  The company who owned the now defunk dairy sent out representatives to interview the victims.  I spent days in the hospital with two little children at home, my husband losing work, much less almost dying, but when the rep realized I was “just a stay-at-home-mom,” he said I wasn’t worth the same as a “working mother“.

Eventually my children were grown and I was expected by the world to get a "real" job--I still am to this day.  But my career choice continues.

The “women’s movement” of the ‘70s sometimes haunts my mind, and the thought of having extra money to just re-carpet the stairs and second floor right now sends me daydreaming.  Reality sets in pretty quick when I try to figure how to fit a job in to my already full schedule of keeping my home together and all the myriad of things which consume my time for others.

Why would I change how God has blessed me in my endeavors all these years?  Have I wasted my life?  Was my choice to pour love and knowledge into my children, and now into others, for nothing?

My career choice is
 “the most magnificent contribution imaginable to society“.

Proverbs 31:10-31
An excellent wife, who can find?
For her worth is far above jewels.
The heart of her husband trusts in her,
And he will have no lack of gain...

I have met many working mothers throughout my life who desperately wanted to be at home even when their children were grown.  The world pulls at them*, their in-laws chastise them**, their degrees hang on them***, their bills scream out to them**** and so they continue to work.

This is not one kind of woman against the other.  I am not judging who is better; working women or homemakers.  Mainly, I just grieve at what a waste we humans have created.  Throughout time it is only "The Anointed"  who are good enough, and they are the ones who choose what "good" means.

You, daughter of the Most High, are His and highly treasured by Him.  Don't let "The Anointed" of our time tell you what your value is.  Your value is priceless, bought with a price that no one could pay, but One. 


He is the King of Kings.

*you aren't good enough unless you have a real job
**some in-laws will not keep to their own business, but burden their daughters-in-laws with, "how can you make our son be the only support for your family?"
***The ever present, "I can't 'waste' my degree."
****understandable--life is tough.