By pamela
So, what are you going to do now that you have finished high school? Going on to College? Going to make something of your life? What do you want to do (read: what career are you going into)?
Well, first, I want to be a wife and homemaker Yes, I want to be a wife and mother.
What?!?! You just want to be a homemaker? Don’t you want to do anything?
O, yes, I do want to do many things that’s why I want to be a homemaker and mother and that’s why I want to be married-to be a wife.
You mean a smart girl like you would give up all that to stay home and do nothing?
O, not nothing. I do want to stay home, but I assure you, I will not be doing nothing. I want to stay home because there is so much to do in fact, there’s so much to do, I’m sure I’m never going to be able to accomplish a fraction of all I’ll want to do.
I can’t believe you’re going to waste your life. To think of what you’re giving up to stay home. To think of the opportunities you will miss, the places you won’t be able to go or the things you won’t be able to do. Kids will just tie you down and will wreck your body and get on your nerves. Think of the prestige or the accomplishments you’re passing up. You’re just going to be a nobody and not make anything of your life. I can’t believe you’re just willingly giving up seeing how you have such great potential and all!
Years later
So, do you regret that you didn’t do something with you life - you know, that decision to just stay home and not do anything? Are you sorry you never never got that education or had a good job or made a name for yourself?
O, no; I don’t regret it at all. You see yesterday morning I got to wake up and say to the LORD and to my husband, Thank you for choosing me and for making me a mother. Thank you for a life of blessings - I could never have asked or imagined all I have been given, all I have experienced and all I have been blessed with - it’s all I never even knew to hope for and more. Some of the gifts I received just yesterday? I received hugs and kisses from eight children, a daughter-in-love and three grandchildren. In addition, I treasure the precious hugs & kisses that came by three cell-phone conversations.
Riches? Fame? Fortune? Blessings? O, you don’t even know. I’m very, very rich. Very rich indeed.
And fortune? beyond fortune! it’s inestimable!
And blessings? O, I could not even begin to count them.
Fame? O yes I’m very famous in fact, I hear my name nearly everywhere I go. There are very few places I can go where one of my fans doesn’t find me and want to talk to me or tell me something. People call out my name every day! I can be in the store or at the park or the library and I’m so famous, even strangers call my namethey all know me! In fact, some of my biggest fans call me every day! O, wait one’s calling me now can you hear it? Moooooooooooooommmm?!?!
Yep, I toldja it’s all I ever wanted to be and everyone knows my name; mother.
A wasted life? Ask my husband or better yet, ask eleven children that call me mother did I waste my life?
I just came in from receiving a package from the UPS man. He stops by every few days to bring packages for my husband. And it dawned on me today that he is always greeted by a little caravan of children on bicycles or skates or, on rainy days, leaning over the back of the sofa to watch him through the living room window. They watch for him and he watches for them. They see his big brown truck driving down the lane and instantly recognize him as the UPS man because of his brown uniform. He always looks neat and tidy and always represents his company well. The USP man may actually be one of several men who’ve made deliveries on this route, but they’re all the UPS man because of that uniform.
So, today was no different. The children ran to greet him and I came out to take the package. In my uniform. I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud to be wearing my uniform as I was this day. Because I realized that I am as easily recognizable to him as he is to me and my children. His uniform indicates he’s on the job - he’s at work, taking care of business, doing what he’s supposed to be doing in a timely and efficient manner. He’s representing his company well. It dawned on me that I am easily recognizable to him (and any of the several others that make deliveries here) because, I, too, am wearing a uniform. My uniform tells others that I am a woman, a keeper at home and I’m a mother. The apron is the mother’s uniform. The wording on my apron, Welcome Home, says to my family and to those who stop in, that I am glad to be here and that I am glad they’re here, too.
When I slip on this apron and tie the strings, I am making a conscious decision to have a mind to work. I have a job as a keeper at home. Titus 2. 3-5 tells me a bit of why I put on this apron. I do love my husband, I do love my children, I do work here, I do guard and guide the home and in doing so, I do want to represent them well. That’s what my uniform says to them and to the watching world - and to me. It says I’m right here, right where I belong, doing what I was meant to do.
The apron: it’s motherhood’s uniform. It means something it’s one of the Good Things of motherhood. What a blessing - what a privilege - to be able to wear it.
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