Get a Real Job!

I've been a work-at-home-mom since my kids were very little, making enough cash to supplement my husband's income, while staying home with the kids and taking care of the house. Our finances have always left something to be desired, but the payoff means way more to us than keeping up with the Joneses: being able to raise our kids ourselves rather than hoping that day-care workers raise them right, being able to attend special activities at school, parent events, and participating in extra-curriculars - not to mention being able to schedule my job around my faith and family rather than vice-versa.

Well, in the past few years, my supplemental cash has not been enough for us to make ends meet, even after cutting out all of the non-essentials. Don't get me wrong, when business is going well, we can get by just fine, but the past 6 months in particular have been horribly un-well. After way too many months of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul we're considering the possibility that I leave the house to "get a real job".

I have a feeling that most people would look at this and say "So what? You have to do what you have to do to put food on the table," while others might advise us to apply for assistance until business picks up again. To the second group pf people, I have to let you know that current regulations (in our area, at least) do not consider self-employment to be suitable work. In order to be eligible for assistance you must either be working full-time or involved in a related program that requires you to be in training/searching for 30+ hours a week until you are gainfully employed at a "real job". To the first group of people, I bring forth my inner battle of faith.

You may ask, "What does faith have to do with providing for your family?" Before I answer that question, I feel it necessary to get something out of the way: my husband works a full-time manual-labor job and I have two at-home businesses, so it's not that either of us are afraid of hard work. And secondly, my husband and I truly believe that the best way to raise our children and take care of our family is with me at home. Now to answer your question about faith, I must start by quoting Matthew 6:25-34

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

All of that being said, my inner struggle is this; is my need to find a regular 9-5 job simply a lack of faith? Should I be working harder from home and relying upon the Lord to provide when I cannot? Or is that line of thinking just a cop-out because my flesh desires to stay close to my family at all times? Or because I'm afraid of change and the unknown?

In the words of Yoda, "Meditate on this, I will."