Working Towards Contentment

Calm.  Peaceful.  Happy.  Content.

Happy Family 1955 Eloise Wilkin

No more mad morning dashes out the front door.

No more being late to work.

No more snapping at the kids.

No more schedule rearranging.

No more sick days.

No more melt-downs in the mornings.

No more, “Who is picking up the kids today?”

No more, “Who will pick up dinner?”

No more, “Who will stay with the sick child?”

No more, “Not now, I’m working.”

How would your life change?

He begged her to stay home.  She didn’t feel adequate.  She couldn’t accept his care of her.  She feared abandonment.  “What will it take?” he asked.  She jokingly replied, “A Porsche Cayenne.”  Within a week he had one delivered and demanded she resign.  He told her that he and the kids desperately needed her to be at home.  The chaos and negativity of her job was destroying their home life.  She quit, and the above was her partial list of what changed.  Does your husband really want you to work?  It is a GIFT from a husband to his wife to provide for her and their children.

What used to be a normal way of life is now a precious calling for Christian mothers to be dedicated to the family at home, doing the work themselves that others hire out.

I wonder if people really are happier caring for strangers, than for their family?  Are they happier:

• Teaching 34 kids instead of 2?
• Caring for 30 patients instead of 4?
• Waiting on 300 customers instead of 4?
• Getting meals for dozens of families instead of 1?
• Doing taxes or bookkeeping for others instead of 2?
• Cleaning 15 homes instead of 1?
• Caring for a dozen children instead of 2?
• Counseling other families instead of strengthening their own?
• Providing excellent customer service to hundreds instead of service to their husband?
• Spending hours talking to clients instead of their own children?

If you are a Christian who has children at home, and are working for another, are you sure God is really calling you to do that?  (I imagine some are, but I’ll bet many others are not.)

A retired couple I met have a beautiful dream home with an incredible ocean view.  They love spending time with their grandchildren.  They are very energetic, helpful people.  But apparently, both wanted a second career and the chance to make even more money.  I can only imagine that they were talked into a franchise by a salesman telling them they could leave their kids millions (they won’t), because they bought a franchised store.  They appeared to be living cushy, but instead of spending their retirement helping those around them, they now work 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, have gone through their savings, and have put their lovely home, which they had poured money into for years making it their dream home, up for sale.  Why?  They had it made by most people’s standards!  Could it be…discontent? 

Content makes poor people rich; 
discontent makes rich people poor.  ~Ben Franklin

Are you working for free?  And I don’t mean motherhood or volunteer work!


I give examples of five women I have met who are working for free in my book How to Thrive on One Income.  My chapter entitled Working Towards Contentment begins with this post, but is greatly expanded.  These women say they are earning money, but when you do the math, they aren't adding any money to their family.  Be sure YOU count the cost of discontentment.