I've been pondering how I view being a stay-at-home mom and housewife for the past view days. Then I read about it in the John Ortberg book I'm (still) reading - The me I want to be: becoming God's best version of you.
He says there are 3 orientations people take toward their work. (Paraphrased from the book.)
- The first is a job. You focus on a way to make money and pay the bills.
- The second is a career. Here your motivation is slightly different. You focus on advancement and prestige. Your feelings are based on how much success it is creating for you.
- The third is to view your work as a calling. Any work that has meaning, that can be a blessing to people and to the earth, can be a calling. A garbage collector may see what he does as part of making the world a cleaner and safer place and therefore has a calling.
There are days when taking care of the girls can be challenging. The weather isn't nice enough for them to go outside, making them crabby and bouncing off the walls. I didn't sleep well the night before leaving me crabby and cranky. And on top of those two things nothing seems to go the way I think they ought to.
After I read how people view their work it caused me to stop and really take it in. Now instead of seeing motherhood and cleaning life as a job I see it as a calling. I remind myself that God has called me, yes me, to be the mother of my 3 precious girls and wife of my amazing husband. It's no longer my "job" to take care of them, do the laundry, clean the house and make the meals. It's my calling.
How do you view your work? Job, career or calling?
Until next time~
