Building Cathedrals
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been struck by the reality that many of my fellow stay-at-home mom friends are unbelievably BUSY! This includes moms in my neighborhood and moms from our church group, mothers who don’t have a paying job outside the home but who have taken on so many different responsibilities that they may as well have a two full-time jobs! These moms coordinate fun-runs to benefit their children’s schools, volunteer for pro-life ministries and PTO positions, and offer to cook meals for families with new babies. They host play dates, teach CCD, and offer to be soccer team moms. And believe it or not, some mothers do all of the above activities at the same time, and they are exhausted! They run from one activity to the next, kids in tow, and they never seem to enjoy the activity that they are at because they know that in half an hour they need to rush off to the next meeting, practice, or
class.
The reality is that many organizations depend entirely on moms to volunteer their time and energy to make them run smoothly, and these organizations do wonderful things that benefit lots of different people. But sometimes – not always, but sometimes – I think that we, as moms, bite off more than we (or our families) can chew. We think that because we are not working outside the home, we are obligated to take on all sorts of different volunteer positions; in other words, when we see a need, we want to help! Again, I firmly believe that volunteer work is wonderful and so many people benefit from the hard work that moms do, but sometimes the family suffers as a result. Another unintended consequence is that when we spread ourselves too thin, nothing gets done well. Because we are not paid for the work that we do, we sometimes end up doing a sloppy job on one task so that we can move on to the next…And the next…And the next!
My proposal: During this Lent, let’s all take some time to step back and take stock of what we (as moms) are involved in, why we are involved, and how our involvement affects our family life. Maybe a conversation with our spouse would be helpful in this process. We may discover that we need to ask for help from our friends, we may find that we need to step back from a certain volunteer organization for a period of time, or we may find that all is well! We may even discern that we could take on another volunteer responsibility, if God is calling us to do so. Either way, it can’t hurt to prayerfully consider how we spend our time and how this affects ourselves and our families.
May God bless all of you and your families on this Monday morning!
Saint Frances of Rome, pray for us! Help us to discern what is God’s desire for our lives and what is our will.
Amen.
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