Thoughts on home...

As we begin our second year of home education, I've had a chance to think about my role in life. It is much different than I had imagined. I've always imagined myself as a self-sufficient person that would be very successful professionally. I wouldn't be dependent on anyone, least of all a man! That's what I was always taught.

Fast forward 30 years or so, and here I sit :). I have left the work force, and well, I'm completely dependent on a man to provide income for my family!

So many women in today's society would frown on this. So often today, we (women) think we must leave the house and enter the work force to be fulfilled or "find our identity". I was that woman for a long time. Initially, I joined the work force because I had to. Simply put, I was the income provider for my family. But, as my life progressed, I became the secondary income provider. I still yearned the freedom that being a professional gave me, so I continued working. I could feel my heart strings being pulled by God to come home with my children, but I had to look after my needs, my desires. As a result, I put God on mute for a few years.

Finally, my husband and I realized what shape our family was in, and we came to the agreement that I needed to come home. Sounds easy, doesn't it?

Coming home was the scariest thing I have ever done. Why?....

1. I am a liberated woman! What about my "identity"? Won't it get lost at home with the kids all the time?
2. What about our lifestyle? Can we live on half of our income?
3. What do I tell people I know? How do I support our decision to those that disagree?

These were forces I had to face all at once. When we announced our decision to family members, we were told that we were "making a terrible mistake at a HORRIBLE time, didn't we see the state of the economy? We needed two incomes over one now more than EVER!!!".

We have found that through FAITH, we are sustained. There have been a few financial crises that we have faced since my departure from the workforce, and each one of them have been handled through answered prayer. There was even a time when we anonymously received a gift card in the mail for groceries!

Well, what about Ms. Liberated Woman? This is what I have to say to her:
The bravest, most challenging, most fulfilling thing a mother could ever do is to take care of her family! There is no accomplishment made in an office building that can come anywhere near the gratification waiting for you at home with your children! We have the (brief) opportunity to build up these children into mighty men and women for God's glory!

I know from personal experience that sometimes we have to work. But, when it isn't a necessity, when it has become an escape for you to "find yourself" outside of your family, I want to ask you: What are you hoping to find? And...once you find it, what will it cost you?