Talk About It

Like I said, I'm here. I'm hanging on. This is the 2nd week of homeschool for us, and we are alive. No one has been seriously injured in the re-entry process. There have been several, "Go to your room and don't come out til you are 40!" moments - but, hey...we're getting there.

I was browsing around for back-to-school-activities for homeschoolers (not much there) and found THIS. I'm going to have to go back for more. Preach it, brother!

"I feel the need to address an issue that few women are willing to discuss. Being a profound extrovert, and also not a woman, maybe I can put into words what many married Christian women today are feeling, but are afraid to say:
"I'm burned out, burned up, and the ember that is my personal existence is running on fumes—
—yet I have to keep up appearances."
"While I will say in public—public being church—that my husband is the rock of the household, I'm the one holding our home together."
"I'm petrified to admit I'm barely holding on."
"I'm terrified of letting anyone else know that I question whether this is the abundant life or not."
If that's you, I have a word for you: Grace. My prayer is that you receive it abundantly.

I don't understand what we're doing to women today in the Church. The pressure to conform to a lifestyle that incorporates one part Beth Moore, one part Martha Stewart, one part Jessie Wise, and one part Salome astounds me. And don't even toss in that proverbial woman from chapter 31 that every female is told she must aspire to. That's a whole 'nother post.

Is it any wonder that so many Christian homes are struggling? What woman wouldn't struggle underneath that burden? And as I noted, as she goes, so goes the home.

Frankly, I'm angered at the expectations and the pressure to conform that many women endure. We men don't have that same burden. Yes, our lives our hectic and we're overburdened, too, but we can always opt out and claim we're "just being a guy for the day." Fire up the tube and plugin to six hours of football and no other man will accuse you of being a jerk. We'll all nod and say as one, "Yep…."

But let an Evangelical Christian woman tell her compatriots that she thinks it might be easier to send her kids to public school this year and you'll witness a shunning worthy of The Scarlet Letter."

Only a man could put this into words and get away with it. All of us women folk would agree, but look over our shoulder to make sure no one sees us agreeing. When did this happen? Those of us who left the career world to devote our lives to our home have now become as cut-throat as working women are stereotyped to be. (I know several who are not.)

It is for this reason that I have enjoyed the freedom to whittle down my life. That includes blogging. I have strived to do away with the pressure to have a clean house (don't come over unannounced, please - no matter what Fly Lady says.) I have given up on having Gap-dressed children. That's too much laundry for me to handle. I'm still whittling away other parts of my life and trying to free up time for my spiritual renewal - that's a tough one. I've enjoyed reading as Megan tries to put this part of her life in order as well.

People ask, "How do you do it all?" I don't. I don't do it all - I do a few things, and sometimes I do them well. How do you do it all?