Something I know is true
There is so much work to be done, especially in a family of six. It almost never stops. When one load of laundry is taken off the line, another is ready to go on. When one meal is cleaned up, it's almost time to begin the next. Sometimes we work very hard for leisure, also (as any mama knows who has gone camping).
A woman can work very hard. She can organize and make lists, and she can tidy and straighten and wash and reorganize and dunk her baby in a bath and dress him and put him to bed.
But not all of a woman is made to work. The soul of a woman contains so much more- there is a girl-child inside, ready to play! Sometimes the girl-child is upset, because there has been no time to play, no time to laze around and read on a window seat on a rainy day.
But there is work to do. So, there must be a way to bring the two together! Surely God did not make us to forget how to be children (Jesus suggested the very opposite when He said, "Unless you become like children, you will not see the Kingdom of God") and surely He is not a great taskmaster, always hovering and waiting for us to account for ourselves.
My dear friend in Varanasi said to me, when we talking of this very thing, of making pots and pots of chai and running around and serving and hosting, "But what about the Girl inside?!" Other people may forget the girl-child, but I don't think we should forget her. And if you are a man, you should not forget your boy-child. Actually, this is one of my favorite things about my husband. The small boy that he was is always lingering just below the surface, so close that sometimes they are one and the same. Sometimes that boy bursts through (often!) and rolls on the floor laughing or picks up a sword to play with the kids. I want to be like this.
And yet, the children who are children both on the inside and the outside, they need to eat!
So. I am making a list of ways to play while I work. Tomorrow I will show you my list. I think I will illustrate it and put it somewhere in my house, somewhere I will not forget it. It is necessary, for my survival, as a woman, a girl-child, and a seeker of the Kingdom of God.
A woman can work very hard. She can organize and make lists, and she can tidy and straighten and wash and reorganize and dunk her baby in a bath and dress him and put him to bed.
But not all of a woman is made to work. The soul of a woman contains so much more- there is a girl-child inside, ready to play! Sometimes the girl-child is upset, because there has been no time to play, no time to laze around and read on a window seat on a rainy day.
But there is work to do. So, there must be a way to bring the two together! Surely God did not make us to forget how to be children (Jesus suggested the very opposite when He said, "Unless you become like children, you will not see the Kingdom of God") and surely He is not a great taskmaster, always hovering and waiting for us to account for ourselves.
My dear friend in Varanasi said to me, when we talking of this very thing, of making pots and pots of chai and running around and serving and hosting, "But what about the Girl inside?!" Other people may forget the girl-child, but I don't think we should forget her. And if you are a man, you should not forget your boy-child. Actually, this is one of my favorite things about my husband. The small boy that he was is always lingering just below the surface, so close that sometimes they are one and the same. Sometimes that boy bursts through (often!) and rolls on the floor laughing or picks up a sword to play with the kids. I want to be like this.
And yet, the children who are children both on the inside and the outside, they need to eat!
So. I am making a list of ways to play while I work. Tomorrow I will show you my list. I think I will illustrate it and put it somewhere in my house, somewhere I will not forget it. It is necessary, for my survival, as a woman, a girl-child, and a seeker of the Kingdom of God.