I am very blessed to be a work-from-home mom. I do a few part-time jobs and our home is my home-base for those roles. A funny thing happens when everyone is home with me all the time. I just want to be with them.
During the first part of the school year, when our little missionaries were on their mission field most of the day and my husband was on his, I had the flexibility to get my work and housework done as I saw fit, when it worked best for me. Then the virus chased everyone home to be with me. We were all together and I was delighted for everyone to be home and safe, but then it hit me that I had 3 part-time jobs and one full-time job to get done. I was all-of-a-sudden a homeschool teacher, like the rest of the world who has school-age children.
It took me quite awhile to figure out how to get my part-time jobs done around everyone’s Zoom Calls and Classroom Hangouts, how to get housework done around warm little bodies and their work stations, and how to give myself grace that it wasn’t the time for a tidy house. There were Legos and instruments, and bikes everywhere in places they don’t normally reside.
It’s funny how quickly I forget how summers always are for me. I got the gift of my husband being home with us to work during the stay-at-home order, so that was different, but mostly every summer I fight the same battle and have to recalibrate. I just love my kids. I love being with them, talking to them, playing with them, listening to them, and intentionally spiritually training them. I don’t want to work when they are home. I just don’t.
One of my main jobs as a mom is to train our children that work is good. Because I work from home, they get to see me actually doing my jobs. Whether it’s with them sitting next to me during the quarantine or playing near me during the summer months, I must do my work.
What are they learning from me about the importance of family over work? Do they see how to honor God in the way I get my writing done and the way I get toilets cleaned? Will my children following in my daily life’s footsteps get them on the same path as Jesus?
I want to serve and work as unto the Lord so they know how to do it, too. There is no room for
complaining or doing less than excellent work. Little eyes are always watching. I want to give them something noble to become.
For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also
in the eyes of man. 2 Corinthians 8:21
Take some time to thank God for the work He’s given you to do and to teach your children how to do.