• - have set up all night long with a sick toddler in their arms,
• - run carpools and make cookies and sew costumes for the school plays,
• - ache as they see their once innocent babies move into the “tween” and then teen years,
• - are stumbling through diaper changes and sleep deprivation,
• - teach their sons to cook and their daughters to sink a jump shot,
• - lock themselves in the bathroom when their babies keep crying and won’t stop,
• - feel the need to flee from wherever you are when you hear news of a school shooting, a fire, a car accident, a baby dying, so that you can hug your own child,
• - are married, are single, who work outside of the home, and those that stay at home
• - are just trying to do a great job….

Happy Mother’s Day!!!

Remember, Motherhood is a partnership with God……

A handsome and supportive husband, well behaved, intelligent children, a job paying 6 figures that utilizes my many talents and skills, a beautiful well kept and sparkling clean home, and the energy and enthusiasm to be wife, mom, daughter, sister, aunt, volunteer and PTO board member….NOT

There are a few of these things that I do have-my husband is handsome and supportive; the majority of the time my children are well-behaved, but are always intelligent. I haven’t been able to turn my considerable talents and skills into a job or venture that pays me the 6 figure salary.

I try to be the good wife, doting mother, concerned daughter, always there sister and aunt, “call me anytime volunteer and PTO board member”, but I must admit that at times the energy and enthusiasm just isn’t there.

Should I now reconcile myself to the fact that I “can’t have it all”? Something will always be shortchanged and I believe that for now it will be the job with the 6 figure salary and the sparkling clean house.

To be honest, I think that I’m okay with that. I’ll be okay with the people who surround me who while they don’t put the money in my pocket, they do fill my heart with joy…… (That sounds pretty corny, doesn’t it, but it’s so very true).

Many of us play several different roles in life: wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, employee and the list goes on and on.

Because we must play so many different roles we sometimes lose ourselves in the process. In their book entitled Vitamins for Your Soul, Traci Mullins and Ann Spangler say that:

“Just as our bodies need sustenance, rest, exercise and protection in order to thrive, so do our souls need refreshment and refueling, retreat and activity, attention and healing in order to be fully alive.”

It’s time to start lavishing the same level of attention on ourselves as we give to others. Let today be the last day that you place your own health, feelings, concerns and general well-being on the back burner…Read More