It Works!

I gave two seminars again in the last two weeks on chores and scheduling.  It brings in a small amount of money which is always a help and it puts me in front of a crowd which I also love!  I get to meet new people which is part of the fun, too.  My daughters get to be with me by taking registrations and then watching children if they need to, so it is a meaningful thing we can do together.

This past weekend I got in waaaay over my head though.  I invited one of the seminar attendees back to my house for lunch as she was coming from over two hours away.  What was I thinking?  How was I going to clean the house, make lunch, give the seminar and then be back in time to do all that? Impossible.

This is where the seminar truly came to life.  In the seminar I explain the current and future benefits of teaching our children to work through chores.  I talk about the character traits it will develop, including self-denial and willingness to serve others.

When my two oldest boys found out that I was in a quandary....they jumped in and said, "We'll do it! We'll make lunch and clean the house!"  Hmmmmm....what's in it for them, we all wondered!  And, truth be told, they did have some ulterior motives.....Lately, as my kids are all getting older, they are noticing the opposite sex just that much more.....They care more about their hair than they ever did, more about their clothes, more about their guitar playing skills (to get the babes), etc., etc....Learning to cook and impress the ladies, was that on their minds?  Can't say for sure, but I knew this lady was bringing her daughters and so did they!  It was a very smooth move and an offer I couldn't refuse.....

In the seminar I made them appear much more selfless by explaining what my boys were up to while I was giving the seminar, but the truth is, they were sacrificing!  I laughed so hard when later they told me how everything had really gone while we were out of the house....they'd been running around the place like chickens with their heads cut off!  (And now I know what that really means, as we cut chickens heads off around here once in awhile and they actually do that!)  I hoped it made them grateful for all the meals I have to pull off every single day!

My husband had taken the 3 younger boys out of the house and I had the 3 girls, so that only left the two oldest boys, 15 and 17.  When we walked in after the seminar, starving, I might add, we came home to the smell of fresh pizza, homemade "life-changing" bread sticks, as we like to call them, and freshly-tossed salad.  Nothing was burned, everything was spotless and it was like a restaurant.  I had left the house in order...mostly...but there was still a little tidying up outside and inside I had left for them.  All done.  I was amazed.  I really need to make them do this more often!

They were sweating buckets.  It was so funny.  I have no idea how they did it all.  I had really left very few instructions or ideas on how to time it all.  I just hoped they'd figure it out.  I even made them do all the shopping for the gourmet pizza they wanted to make.  They did!

It was the proof in the pudding, as they say.  The benefits of attempting to train all those years was on the line....would they come through?  Would all the effort pay off?  I can say, and did say to the ladies at the seminar, (by faith before we came home!)....it was worth it!  The boys came through with flying colours.  I was so amazed at what a good job they did.  The young girls and the mother who joined us were quiet and didn't say too much, but surely they noticed the Renaissance Men before them!

We finished off the meal with pumpkin cheesecake my daughter had made the night before.  Again, what a blessing to me, to know I didn't have to take care of any of the food prep.  It would have truly kept me from giving the seminar without feeling frazzled.  I was able to give the seminar with peace in my heart, knowing what I was telling the ladies was all true....I wasn't making up the benefits.  No, I was living proof that it works!

In Numbers 11, Moses, aka any mom, cries out to the Lord and says, "Why have you dealt ill with your servant?  And why have I not found favour in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me (i.e. Why have you given me so many kids and no cleaning lady or nanny??!!)"  He goes on to say, "I am not able to carry all this people alone, the burden is too heavy for me."

Is that not what so many moms feel?  I knew this was true of me at many points in my life when the kids were young, but I didn't realize how true it is for so many women, even with older kids.  So much so that a whole new blogosphere of mothers has started that is all about how they wish they had never had children.  They hate their life.  They miss their old life.  They wish they had money, that they could travel, sleep, eat what they want, when they want.  This community of selfish, angry, hateful mothers is becoming quite the phenomenon and by just existing it is feeding the selfishness.

I wish I could meet them all and sit them down and explain, "There's a better way!"

The Lord has the answer.  He tells Moses to gather seventy men and then He promises to meet with them.  He says, "And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone."  (Numbers 11:17)

I gave that passage to the women at the seminar.  They don't need to be among the growing numbers of dissatisfied, angry, discouraged moms.  There may be other factors that are making these moms so upset with their lives, but I bet, for the most part, it's because they are burnt out.  They've taken on all the kids, all their responsibilities and they find themselves empty at the end of the day.  I'm sure most of them do not have a spiritual perspective either.  But a lot of Christian moms find themselves burnt out, too.  This cannot be!  We have the ultimate source of power!  We have no excuses.  On top of that, the Bible gives solutions....train up a child, spread out the labour, give them work while they're young....it's all spelled out so practically in the Bible, a true handbook on parenting.

If these other moms would read it and would ask God for help, I believe they would love their lives. They could be the type of mom who would be so grateful for what her children have taught her, for how rich her life is because of children, instead of only see the things they've lost (did they really need all that they had before?).  Satan is clever.  He knows our selfish weaknesses and he has new strategies brewing all the time.

I only hope the children of these blogging moms never read what their moms have written.