Well, after a full day of cooking, cleaning, driving, shopping, homeschooling, grading and keeping house, one of my sons said to me, “Dad, you look beat!” Then he thought for a minute and added, “You look like Mom usually does around this time of day.” I told Rose, and she loved it.

Click here for more Mr. Mom posts.

We are studying the book of 1 Samuel in church, and I found the following dialogue helpful in bringing Hannah’s situation to life. Hannah was barren and could not have any children. Her husband had a second wife named Peninnah who did have children. The Bible tells us that Peninnah kept provoking Hannah until she wept and would not eat. Dale Davis in his commentary on 1 Samuel imagines the following conversation where Peninnah flaunts her children in front of Hannah. The dialogue begins with Peninnah speaking.

– Now do all you children have your food? Dear me, there are so many of you, it’s hard to keep track.

– Mommy, Miss Hannah doesn’t have any children.

– What did you say, dear?

– I said, Miss Hannah doesn’t have any children.

– Miss Hannah? Oh yes, that’s right – she doesn’t have any children.

– Doesn’t she want children?

– Oh yes, she wants children very, very much! Wouldn’t you say so, Hannah? [In a low aside] Don’t you wish you had children, too?

– Doesn’t Daddy want Miss Hannah to have kids?

– Oh, certainly he does – but Miss Hannah keeps disappointing him; she just can’t have kids.

– Why not?

– Why, because God won’t let her.

– Does God not like Miss Hannah?

– Well, I don’t know – what do you think? Oh, by the way, Hannah, did I tell you that I’m pregnant again?! You think you’ll ever be pregnant, Hannah?

You can just imagine how deeply a conversation like that would have hurt Hannah. And we’re told that this went on year after year. You can read the whole message on this section of Scripture here:  God’s Purpose in Prayer

Survival Tip #47:

Never buy your wife vacuum cleaner bags for Mother’s Day.

Okay, this is pretty sad. I have been playing Mr. Mom while my wife, Rose, is away visiting family in Texas. We have a family tradition of eating subs on Sunday afternoons. The local Subway is just a half mile down the road. Rose has all our favorite orders memorized. She calls the Subway store after church, places the order, and we pick up the subs for lunch.

Well, Rose is away, and yesterday I was trying to get the boys’ orders just right, and it was all just so confusing, when suddenly I had this brilliant idea. That’s right. I called Rose in Texas, gave her the number of the Subway down the street and had her call in the order for us. Fifteen minutes later we were all sitting around the table enjoying our favorite subs. “See boys?” I said. “Just like Mom.” “Dad,” they replied, “that was Mom!”

I know. I am a pathetic Mr. Mom. But Mrs. Mom comes home tomorrow. Good things come to those who wait.

Related posts:

• The Return of Mr. Mom
• Playing Mr. Mom

I am playing Mr. Mom for a couple weeks while my wife, Rose, is away visiting family. I have done this before, and I am not very good at it. At first things go pretty smoothly, and I think, “This isn’t so hard after all.” But over the next several days things around the house begin to shift, and then to slip, and finally to slide. By the time Rose gets back, we are generally in freefall. Here are some of my observations this time around:

• Food:  The church has been wonderful in bringing meals over for the boys and me. They do this because they love our boys and do not want them to starve. My boys made a big point of describing my cooking in gory detail to everyone just to make sure. They are true survivors.
• Kids:  Boy, kids ask a lot of questions. About all sorts of stuff. All the time. They also get sick and need transportation to go places. Who would have thought?
• Bedtime:  I hate going to bed alone. I fight it for hours, then finally crawl into the sheets exhausted. I know, I’m a wimp.
• Homeschooling:  Three kids in three different grades take a combined total of seventeen different subjects every day. That adds up to a whole lot of work for both them and their teacher. (That’s me while Rose is gone.)   I am proud of how hard they work at their studies and amazed at what Rose does every day, all year long.
• Mealtimes:  Mealtimes without Rose are quieter with less laughter. Friends from church have brought over some great meals, but nothing beats the whole family sitting around the table together enjoying mom’s good home cooking.
• Clothes:  My magic dresser seems to be broken. What’s up with that?
• Cell phones:  Cell phones with unlimited family minutes are a wonderful blessing when your loved ones are far away.
• Fridays:  I miss Friday Morning Cracker Barrel with my Rosi. Enough said.

I am counting the minutes until Rose returns.  Literally!  (Update: I had a countdown timer here actually counting down the minutes, but now the timer has finished and Rose is safely back home. Praise the Lord!)

Related posts:

• The Return of Mr. Mom
• Mr. Mom Calls Texas

Here is a quote by Barbara Bush, the mother of president George W. Bush, from her commencement address to Wellesley College Graduates in 1990.

At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child or a parent. Fathers and mothers, if you have children … they must come first. You must read to your children, you must hug your children, you must love your children. Your success as a family … our success as a society … depends not on what happens at the White House, but on what happens inside your house.

“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”
    – (Romans 12:15)

While Mother’s Day is a wonderful day to honor and celebrate our wives and mothers, for many Mother’s Day can be one of the toughest days of the year. It is the only holiday I know of that some women avoid church on purpose.

Pastors, here is an excellent article by Shannon Woodward on how to minister to hurting women on Mother’s Day. I encourage you to read it before Sunday in order to grow in your own understanding and sensitivity of the hurt that this day can hold for many women.

Shannon suggests that if you are going to give gifts on Sunday, that you give them to all the adult women present . I have done this at our church by simply saying, “In honor of our mothers this morning, we have gifts for all the women in our church age 18 or older.”

I especially like her suggestions for ways that we can show appreciation for all the women in our church:

• We’re thankful God made women to be nurturers
• We’re thankful God made women to be teachers
• We’re thankful God made women to be encouragers
• We’re thankful God made women to be tender-hearted
• We’re thankful God made women to be counselors
• We’re thankful God made women to be compassionate
• We’re thankful God made women to be gentle

The women over at the GirlTalk blog have also written a number of articles addressing the various sadnesses women can face on Mother’s Day. If this is a tough weekend for you, you may find the following articles helpful:

• Infertility on Mother’s Day
• Grief on Mother’s Day
• Sadness on Mother’s Day

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

HT: Between Two Worlds

This little ditty popped into my head the other night while walking from the kitchen to the bedroom. I don’t know where it came from, so I can’t give it back. By the time I reached the bedroom it was finished, so I recited it for my wife. She liked it, so I posted it here.

“THE MAGIC DRESSER” (A Poem for Mother’s Day) – by Ray Fowler

I have a magic dresser; it has a magic drawer.
I take my clean clothes out of it and then go back for more.
I only take things out of it; I never put them in.
But every time I open it, my clothes are clean again.
I don’t know why this happens; I’m not sure how it works.
But if I forget my wife on Mother’s Day, I must really be a jerk!

________________________________________
Click here for more Poems by Ray Fowler.
Click here for more Random Thoughts.

Salary.com released their 2007 Mom Salary survey last week.

Based on its survey of more than 40,000 mothers, Salary.com determined that the time mothers spend performing 10 typical job functions would equate to an annual salary of $138,095 for a stay-at-home mom … Working Mom’s ‘at-home’ salary is $85,939 … this is in addition to the salary they earn in the workplace …

A large portion of mom’s salary is from the amount of overtime worked … stay-at-home moms work a 92 hour “workweek” – more than half her time spent on the job is overtime. Working moms … logged over 9 hours of overtime for an average 49 hour mom work week beyond their full time paying jobs …

The job titles that best matched a mom’s definition of her work are (in order of hours spent per week): housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, CEO and psychologist.

It’s Mother’s Day this weekend, so let’s hear it for all you moms and the hard work you put in for your families week in and week out. We appreciate you and all that you do.

Oh, and by the way, if you would like someone to actually pay you that salary that you’re worth this year, check out the Similac Mom’s $135K Payday contest, which will award one mother with a full year’s salary in recognition for all her hard work. I hope you win – you deserve it!

HT: Between Two Worlds

Elle, at A Complete Thought, has written two very moving posts about her firstborn son, James, who died at age 2 1/2 after two years of illness and extended hospital stays. James was born on April 3, Easter Sunday, 1994.

The first post is a letter written to her son this year on what would have been his thirteenth birthday. In the second post, written on Easter of this year, Elle shares openly about her own struggle with faith following James’ death, along with the added difficulty of learning how to celebrate Easter once again, which now represented not only the resurrection of her Lord but also the birthday of the son she had lost.

I pray that these two posts will minister to others who have lost children as well as deepen the hearts and understanding of those who have never experienced such a loss. Thank you, Elle, for sharing personally and from your heart. May God continue to comfort you and your husband with his strong hand of love.