If only I could home-school my children, I thought. If only I didn’t have to work. I have wondered if it is a sin for me to work for money to keep this beautiful house and maintain a certain standard of living.
I wondered, Shouldn’t we let go of our material possessions to put Christ first in our lives? My husband, Obadiah, challenged my musings. “Are you saying it is a sin for mothers to work? Do all women have to stay home with their children? Is home-schooling the only acceptable way to educate a child?” We questioned the decisions we had made about our budget, home and lifestyle. We analyzed everything! I tried to imagine for us a radically different life. I prayed to God repeatedly asking Should we sell our home? Should I home-school? Should I be a stay-at-home-mom? I felt an answer in my soul. I don’t take this lightly. An answer to a prayer is blessing and a miracle. Hearing the voice of God is special and rare. I must tell you that I am grateful for this and praise God for the blessing! I heard the answer is in the numbers. I didn’t tell my husband that right away. I just asked him questions about numbers. Obadiah gave me numbers based on some fancy math. We talked about money of course, but we also considered other numbers such as time, hours and years. Our ultimate conclusion was that we would lose a small fortune by starting over at our age (we are both about 40 years old.) If we have a talent to work hard and earn a good income we can touch other lives with this. But we must commit to being charitable. It would be wrong for us to stockpile cash for the purpose of fancy vacations and buying new cars. If I home-schooled, our children would learn Christian values at home, but then we would have to let them loose in a world full of diverse opinions. For us, it seems like a better move to teach them how to navigate straight through this diverse world with the Love of Christ. I am no longer torn-up about being a working Mom. The decision has been made – with prayer and reflection. I got my answer and I know I made the right one.