Personal hypocrisy? Well maybe, but did I say I was perfect or Dirt?
So in case you didn’t smell the toast burning I will point out what may have gone undetected. I will even try to explain it without coming to my defense, I will let God do that, or discipline me, which ever.
I mentioned in my last post My Old Fair Job that I had a, gasp, job.
“But what? You’re a stay at home mom. You said Mrs. Palin would not be a role model for your girls.”
“Yep. And if we peer into my recent past you will see that I worked two days a week at the local hardware store just before my second daughter’s wedding.”
“How do you justify that?”
“Well I don’t, but let me try to explain how Dirt and I came to be at peace with it.”
The two different jobs, one only lasting two weeks each year, got my family a little extra spending money for two celebrations.
Neither job was necessary because Dirt and I were living beyond our means, we have credit cards for that, *joke*. The reality that it was not necessary is a big one, Dirt and I knew that we would not feel we were in the position to fudge on principles because of a job that our family had to have. I would not “have” to stay late with the boss alone because my job depended on it, I would not “have” to work if my family started to get out of whack and children became disobedient because I was at work.
Neither job put me in an authoritative position over a man or men. Not that Dirt and I feel that it is wrong intrinsically, Deborah in Judges was not condemned for taking a authoritative position, not like Onan got a “sin” named after him for his actions. It goes more to the point that Dirt and I recognize one of the footholds Satan has in my life from past sin is a twinge of feminism. If I, Lanny Person, had a position of authority over a man I might have to put way to much spiritual energy into not coming home wearing pants. *figuratively – I do wear them literally* I absolutely do not boss my husband around, nor should I. I put my two cents in frequently and it even causes him to change his mind but Dirt assures me it isn’t because I am being bossy, just more capable of seeing the bigger picture or the detail in that instance, for which he is thankful because I have occasionally saved time or money or both. I am after all his helpmate and that isn’t just to hand him wrenches although that is one of my favorite things to do for him, really. But this is a line that couples, with the help of close godly friends, need to figure out for themselves.
Neither job was a career that I had invested a great deal of time or money into developing. We feel that it is very dangerous for women to enter into a field of interest that would cause them to feel that they had to continue in it even when circumstances pointed to their need to stay home and unplug from the work world. This can easily be seen when a young woman has racked up big debt for a college education so that she “has something to fall back on” (as if God wasn’t enough to fall back on). Not only does the young woman have the debt to cover but then, even after it is finally paid off, she and others around her may wonder why you would spend so much time and energy on something you don’t really use. Because really even though motherhood is a tough, hard, thankless (by some), brain draining job, you can do it without a college degree, my grandmother and many, many, many (generations of many) like her would agree.
Remember here folks this is all to explain Dirt’s and my seemingly inconsistent positions, or hypocrisy. Not to tell you you are wrong if you don’t believe like we do. If the Holy Spirit chooses to work on you like he did Dirt and I years ago then I would of course recommend that you listen to Him instead of putting him off for years like Dirt and I did. If you are not seeing it and think we are whacko nut jobs, that’s okay too, really, I won’t bug you, I won’t even say “I told you so” when one of you has an affair, physically or emotionally or your children are a mess, not that moms working causes that or anything.
But for now I gotta go visit a young friend in the hospital who is only at twenty-seven weeks gestation.
I’ll pick this up later but I might want to post about fun frivolous things first, like the backhoe digging out the ponds at this very minute – What a great sound! But if it was a neighbor’s sound, now that might be a different story.
Dirt on dirt.
