More Than Just Penny Pinchers: The Value of Homemaking (Part Two)

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This is a re-post of a series from last winter, but it was a great reminder to myself as I re-read it today. I love being a mom, but so often forget how precious my children are (especially in the midst of the work that they cause some days!) To read the first post in this series, go HERE.

I may have had a slightly different childhood than many of you out there (maybe not though, who knows?) I grew up in a single parent home where my mom worked 60-70 hours each week while my three brothers and I survived at home. I can remember at a very young age beginning to imagine (please don’t think I’m crazy!) And even as a very young girl, my heart’s desire was to be a mom.

After school each day I’d come home to a parentless house, head up to my bedroom, turn on ridiculously loud music (we had parkay floors; if you even stepped around the room it sounded like you were crashing right through the floor. . . anyone remember those?) I then would start imagining.

And here’s what I dreamed of (I’m such a nerd, you know!) I imagined that I was a mom.

I imagined that I lived in a house with a front porch. I imagined that I had three children. I even imagined I was married to an engineer. (I put a lot of thought into that one – I figured they made a reasonable amount of money but didn’t work too much, like I was convinced all lawyers and doctors did!) I imagined baking cookies, and playing games, and being part of a close-knit family.

Guess what? (You’ll never believe this!) I became a mom :). I live in a house with a front porch (some days I wonder if God gave me a picture of our home even as a kid; crazy, isn’t it?) I have three cute kiddos (however I think they were much quieter and always listened when I imagined them!) I even married an engineer (I promise you this one’s the truth – isn’t it crazy what God will give you?) And do you know what else? I get to bake cookies, and play games, and I really do have just the family God designed for me. I AM SO BLESSED! So homemaking for me is something I spent years hoping for, something I never dreamed I would have, and a blessing beyond anything I could ever imagine.

However, in the midst of it all (and even despite the yearning God has always placed on my heart), I sometimes forget the blessing God has given me in my daily routines. I forget that when I wash ten loads of laundry (folding up oodles of mismatched tiny socks), I AM BLESSED. And that when I mop the floor, or scrub the countertops, or repeat new spelling words for the hundredth time, I AM BLESSED. And that even when I clean up the poop (again), and the toilets (really?), I AM STILL BLESSED.

You would think that after dreaming forever of exactly this job I would bounce joyfully off to fixing my kid’s cereal each morning when they pull me out of bed. (My littlest one likes to pry my eyes open; trust me, that was not in my imaginings.) Instead, I fight it. I fight the work, the dailiness of it all, and more than anything the I-haven’t-spoken-to-another-adult-in-ten-years-so-I’m-feeling-a-little-bit-nuts-today feeling!

So today, if you feel a little like me, I encourage you to embrace the cereal-making and the laundry-washing and the countertop-cleaning and, (of course), even the poop. (I’m encouraging myself here too!)

I encourage you to remember what you thought homemaking looked like before you ever began, whether your children are just babies or all grown up, if you work outside the home or inside the home (because if you are a woman, you are a homemaker!) And I encourage you to seek the blessing in exactly the job God’s given you, even if you’re not feeling so blessed in it today. God has called you to a precious occupation, and believe it or not, even in the poop :), we truly are incredibly blessed.

Looking for more not-so-penny-pinched posts? Check these out:

Photo courtesy of Salty Cotton on Flickr.