It’s easy to become complacent about our calling. It can frequently become the object of our scorn; the thing we want to “hurry up and get done”. But the great thing about having a calling, is just that. We were called to it. We didn’t trip into it. Everyone’s looks different. Mine happens to be both indoors and outdoors at a permanent location. Lodging and utilities are included, and you never have to be alone. In other words I’m a mother who doesn’t work outside of the home.

For years I arranged my job so that I could do it all, and do it well. I was successful at keeping the kids occupied while I flew through the house like a tornado, cleaning and cooking. I’m good at that: plowing ahead with vigor accomplishing everything myself. And then dinner would be over, and I would stand at the sink inwardly brewing my bitterness at the lack of help I received. Pride is so sneaky isn’t it? It tickles our ears with the six-figure-income we would be making if we “got what we deserved”.

But for all the years I spent soothing myself with the lie that I’m overworked and under-appreciated, I could have had willing apprentices, growing into the skills they would need. Thank God, it’s not too late. A mother does, in fact, wear many hats, but it is sinful pride that convinces us that our hats should be gilded.

My house is filled with willing workers. They aren’t always excited about it, and sometimes they resist, but God has called me to teach them, and God has called them to be taught. And some of the best fellowship and conversations happen when we are working together.