Family First?

I was told once that the physical needs of a family have to be met first . . . then you can work on the spiritual. We have to provide the basics to see that our children are healthy and well-fed, but the physical needs the world is advertising today exceeds actual need and is self-centered want.

To meet the ‘needs’ of a family, mothers are competing in the work force. Although I’m not well-versed in economics, it seems to me that the more people who require jobs, the less good jobs there are available. And if a husband isn’t making enough to support his family, then the mother probably has to get a job. Equal rights looks rather unbalanced from this viewpoint.

All right, you might say, so a man has to work harder for his paycheck. What’s wrong with a woman grabbing her share of the paychecks being handed out? It’s fair competition.

One of the first things to go is respect. If a female wants to compete in a ‘man’s’ world, she should expect to be treated differently. You can’t have it both ways. You lose a bit of what makes each gender unique.

If you are a single woman, you can cope with the pressure, overtime and exhaustion. What if you are a mother in the workplace? Now who gets hurt?

A look around the world today will tell you that many mothers aren’t on duty. No matter how you try, you can’t handle two, full-time jobs. Motherhood is not an eight to five job..

In order to keep your children happy and maintain your ‘freedom’ to work, you keep them supplied with the latest and greatest to satisfy their physical needs. If you aren’t home, you don’t have the time to work on the spiritual. And the longing for physical wants far exceeds any desire for the spiritual unless this is nurtured . . . but who has time?

I knew a couple who put off starting a family until they could afford a boat. They earned their boat, had a baby and soon divorced. They both worked, the baby was in day care and they really didn’t have a family. The boat didn’t hold them together. In fact, it was something to argue over in the divorce proceedings. And the baby continued in day care because now the mother had to work.

I think that if most working mothers sat down and figured out the actual cost to them, spiritually and physically, of working, they might reconsider. Of course, there is always the ‘world’ telling them they have a right to find themselves so number crunching might not change their minds. And many of the husbands of today are products of working parent homes and used to the ‘bounty’ two salaries can bring. No one seems to know anymore when their physical needs have been met and exceeded. They keep trying to fill a void that only God can ultimately satisfy.

I know many stay home mothers are regarded as being somewhat selfish and lazy. We are home most of the time, don’t have the hassle of PTA and car pools, and seldom worry about whether our clothes are totally fashionable. Our own relatives wonder about us!

Well, I guess as long as we are being considered backward, we might as well continue on that path and see first to the spiritual needs of our family . . . then we can work on the physical - together, as a family.