Zatera Ul

Yesterday was a good day, just too much going on. OLC had to take her naps on the run, and she was really worn out by the end of the day. I’m going to take a slower pace today, for both of us. Sometimes I think about making Monday my Sabbath day.

We found a book on being a working Christian mother at the thrift store Saturday. One sentence summary: working mothers are busy, busy, busy, but it’s good to be using one’s gifts and talents, and the kids will probably still turn out ok. About half way through it, a suspicion crept up on me, and it turned out to be right: this book had absolutely no mention of a Sabbath rest for anyone, let alone working mothers. Just repeated images of being on a never-ending treadmill of activity, and that the solution for keeping sanity is better childcare. Sad. We’ve been reading Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva Dawn in our small group, but she was single when she wrote it, and didn’t really address how to observe Sabbath while tending to young children.

One little idea in the working mothers book that could have been expanded though, was this: the workplace was opened to women because the church failed to allow sufficient room for the use of their God-given gifts. (Not that I necessarily agree with it; I think it would apply more to single women, anyway.) Part of the reason I’m still working is to use my analytical gifts. But there are also plenty of ways that I use my talents in my home.