Motherhood equals a Woman of many hats. I don’t mean those crazy big church going hats that are all fancy like. I mean hats that are sometimes messy. Hats that are not in the literal sense at all. These hats are the actual roles given to us to play. As a mother I can be wearing my nurse hat, my doctor hat, my house cleaner hat or my teacher hat at any given time. At times I could be wearing all the hats at the same time. Moms have to be versatile and flexible willing to flow with whatever comes our way. We have to be prepared to wear any of those hats at any given moment as the need arises.
As a mother life flows in and out of many different responsibilities. As a homeschooling mom this is also the case but even more so. I have a friend who home schools wearing the teachers hat. She takes off her mom hat at that time and even tells her kids that she is now their teacher. This helps them and works for them. But for me, I can never make myself take off my mom hat. It is always there along with the others. When we start school the teacher hat just goes on top of the mom hat. I think it can work either way just fine depending on your family.
However, because my life is so intertwined with so many roles and responsibilities I found it hard when we had to take a number of sick days because of the flu. In my mind I was having a really hard time allowing us to be sick. I was fighting the temptation to give us work anyway for school though it would have been a disaster for us all. I was also finding it hard not to clean up every little thing that became misplaced. I could not do it if I wanted to but I found myself fretting over it.
God was trying to teach me rest. Our bodies need rest when we find ourselves ill. It is okay if things get out of place and life has to come to a stop for this time of healing. God was showing me how to surrender that activity for rest, something I really need to learn to do without being sick. School will always be there and we will get right back into the swing of it as soon as we are well. No need to think we are behind because we are not. We are on our own schedule and will follow it until completion. It will not always look the way I want it to or think it should but nevertheless it will be completed.
So in all the hats we were as mothers there is a time that we need to just take a breather and relax. Jesus speaks it well this way, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:27-29). Maybe instead of trying to balance so many hats I just need to take His yoke and put it on me. Everything else will fall into place if I just do it His way.
Written by: Angela Parsley of Refresh My Soul Ministry
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