Honor Her

My mind is on women today – mothers in particular. The work a mother does is often not fully understood or truly appreciated. Traditionally, women have the larger role of caring for the children and the home – and even with more women working paying gigs outside the home, this remains true today. Many husbands help, but honestly, women carry the larger burden of the many tasks that are required to watch over the needs of the household.

This past week we had the pleasure of keeping my grandsons for several days for my daughter and her husband. The boys are 2 years and 9 months – cute ages and so full of fun! We enjoyed every moment of that time with them, but I have to tell you it was completely exhausting. I had forgotten just how much work children are.

While caring for the boys, I thought about how easy this all seemed to be when I was young. I don’t remember being so exhausted at the end of a day, or looking around at the chaos created by fun-loving little ones and wondering how in the world I was going to find time or energy to dig the toys from under the couch and put them back where they belong. My memory cabinet only contains the “Joy of Motherhood” file; I must’ve shredded the “Working through Exhaustion” file.

As I was praying this morning, the many mothers I know floated into my mind and I prayed for God to give them His strength and patience as they move through their days. I thought about their lives. Moms, like my daughter, who have a job outside the home, and come home after a long day to manage dinner, laundry, sports schedules, bedtimes and temper tantrums. Stay at home moms who manage all those things and also the responsibility of home-schooling their children. Moms who stay home with their own, and have chosen to take on the daily care for the children of other moms who have jobs outside the home. Moms make the world go round. Truly.

I remembered that when my children were young I had a pretty strict schedule for myself to ensure that meals were prepared, everyone made it to school or practice on time, the hubby’s lunch prepared every morning, house clean and laundry done, stories read and lullaby’s sung. And as I was remembering all that, I realized there were very few minutes left in a day for me to spend on myself. I don’t think I even had time to miss the “me time” ….

Proverbs 31 describes a wife of noble character as being more valuable than rubies. Then the author goes on to list the many duties of this valuable wife in the next 20 verses. Gives her husband confidence, shops, gardens, gets up early, stays up late, cares for her family as well as others in need, clothes her family, helps to support her family, all the while remaining strong and dignified, laughing, sharing wisdom and watching over the needs of her household. Through all this, she is loved, praised and blessed.

I encourage you to think about a mom you know and consider all that she is doing to watch over the needs of her household. Send a word of encouragement, pray for her, drop off some desert or take the kids for a few hours so she can take a bubble bath and read a good book.

“Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.” Proverbs 31:31