Working Moms

Life is always changing, isn't it?!  Next month, I'm heading back to work - to teach an Anatomy class as an adjuct at my old college!  I'm excited to be back in that familiar environment, to work with my colleagues again ... but I'm nervous about how I'm going to manage the extra work on top of my already busy mother-of-three-stay-at-home-Mom-pastor's-wife life!  Whew! 

 

As I get ready to head back to work, I find myself thinking about a post I wrote a while ago about the lessons I learned as a working mom.  I think this refresher is more for me than you, but maybe it can be for both of us!  May God bless the work of our hands, no matter where He leads us!

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Working Mom … isn’t that a silly title?   What mom’s aren’t working?  From dawn to dusk, wrangling kids, making lunches, nursing babies, cleaning the house, and oh wait … I have a husband, too?!  The word MOM means so much on its own, but add the word “working” as a prefix – as in working outside the home – and life becomes a whole new animal!

I started my dream job (college Anatomy teacher) as a young married woman with no kids.  My husband and I ate relaxing breakfasts together and then headed out the door.  I got to work early, got a jumpstart on my day, and stayed late whenever I needed to.  But then … I got pregnant!  I worked until 3 days before my daughter was born – waddling around the college with my ever-expanding belly, trying to squeeze my larger than life self between the rows of students and feeling so awkward when my belly bumped into their tattooed backsides at the lab bench!  But, as crazy as it sounds, I loved every minute of it!

My husband and I realized early on that I had been blessed with a wonderful job and a new baby, and God – in His perfect will for my life – had me keep working.  So, a few months after my little girl was born, I joined the ranks of the “working moms.”  For some of us, that can be a strange place to be – you can’t join the Tuesday morning bible study or pop in for all the classroom parties.  You may not be able to do everything that working-in the home-moms can do, but don’t think God can’t equip you to be a wonderful Mom even if you spend those middle-of-the-day hours at the office!

By the time I headed back to work after my daughter was born – I had been blessed with new priorities, and I knew many aspects of my work-life would need to change.  The Lord taught me three major lessons that year, and I hope these will be an encouragement to all the moms out there today – no matter your title!

• Lesson 1: When I'm at work – be at work.  When I'm at home – be at home.  For a while, I tried to bridge the gap by bringing my baby girl with me to work every chance I’d get.  As idyllic as that sounded – she was never content, and I was never able to fully focus on my work.  Basically, the more I tried to mix the two, the worse it seemed like I did at both!  It made more sense for me to separate the two.  If my baby was happy and well taken care of in the nursery, I could enjoy the security of knowing that while working diligently and getting things done in half the time.   (And that meant I could go home earlier!)
• Lesson 2: Be as efficient as possible – I always wanted to take as little work home with me as possible (see lesson 1!) – so I learned to ask myself: “Am I being as productive as possible right now?”  Am I chatting with people in the hallway, or am I shutting my office door so I can go home with an empty briefcase?  The more I buckled down while I was at work, the more quality time I’d have with my daughter while we were at home!
• Lesson 3: Cut myself some slack, and embrace the season – I was a SUPER-DUPER employee before I had my kids.  I promise I didn’t stink it up after they were born, but I accepted early on that if I didn’t get the highest possible rating at my evaluation, it would be ok, because “meeting expectations” and still getting to leave at a reasonable hour to be with my daughter was worth so much more than any “exceeds expectations” rating ever could be – even to this Type A girl!

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I read Proverbs 4 this week, and this verse sums it all up:“Ponder the path at your feet, and let all your ways be established.”
(Proverbs 4:26)

Be intentional with everything you do.  Commit your time to the Lord,
and He will bless you at work and at home!