Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Moms don't get vacations ...

I am seeing very clearly that if I don't stay on top of my own day, my children just wander aimlessly.  Then I point them back to what they're supposed to be doing, but they get distracted and wander away.  It becomes an endless cycle

On a grumpy day, I might sit and ponder how unfair it is that a Mom doesn't get a break.  But today, I just am needing to accept it.  Even on a vacation, it will be my job to pack and keep track of our things.  It will be my job to keep the children in line and discipline for misbehaviors.  On the weekends, we may not have schoolwork, but we still have housework and I have to be preparing everyone and everything for Sunday.  And somehow, the need to keep the children under control and disciplined just never goes away.

So today, I'm just facing facts.  I don't get a vacation.  And if I take a mental vacation, things just fall apart around me.  And that only means more work for me in the long run.  So, it's time to pull myself together and stop trying to take mental vacations.  It only backfires, anyway.

And because it always helps me to see it in God's Word:

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."   Deuteronomy 6:4-9

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."    Proverbs 22:6

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."  Galatians 6:9

"She sets about her work vigorously;  her arms are strong for her tasks."  Proverbs 31:17

"She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness."  Proverbs 31:27

"Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."  Titus 2:4-5

"If a man is lazy, the rafters sag; if his hands are idle, the house leaks."  Ecclesiastes 10:18

"Go to the ant, you sluggard;
       consider its ways and be wise!

It has no commander,
       no overseer or ruler,


yet it stores its provisions in summer
       and gathers its food at harvest.


How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
       When will you get up from your sleep?


A little sleep, a little slumber,
       a little folding of the hands to rest-


and poverty will come on you like a bandit
       and scarcity like an armed man."   (Proverbs 6:6-11)