World's hardest job

When I used to hear people say that stay-at-home moms had the hardest job in the world, I thought it was a nice and polite thing to say about those lucky people who set their own schedules, had no real responsibilities, and could be found at Chick-fil-a, Homegoods, or Target at 2pm on a Tuesday. I used to think stay-at-home moms needed the confidence boost, and therefore people had learned to tell them their job was the hardest in the world.

If I could slap myself for the way I used to think, believe me, I would.

Let's just say my thoughts have changed since joining the ranks of stay-at-home mom-dom.

I can say with experience that being a stay-at-home mom is the hardest job in the world. A demanding, unpredictable (albeit cute) boss sets your schedule, you bear the enormous responsibility of another life, and if you go to Target at 2pm on a Tuesday it is because you've exhausted your bag of 1001 tricks at home and the walls are truly about to cave in.

I don't write this post because I need the confidence boost of someone else thinking I work hard. In fact, this post is not headed where you probably think.

I can explain my absence from this blog over the past several weeks: I've just been super busy at work.

Add to that my usual cycle of insomnia that comes and goes as it chooses, and you've got a girl who's been focused on one thing lately: surviving.

This is an honest post, coming from an honest place. And I'll go ahead and share the moral of the story: The Lord shows up when we're weak.

Wait for Him.

Several weeks ago, lifting the toothbrush in the morning felt like more responsibility than I could bear. The days dragged, and the black hole just kept getting deeper and blacker.

Rescue me, Lord. Get me out of this cycle. Give me peace. Give me something! Just rescue me!

Several weeks ago, a friend from church moved into the apartments across the street from my house while she and her husband (and one-year-old twin girls) search for a house.

Let me say that again: Several weeks ago, a friend.

I've thought of a lot of ways the Lord could answer my prayers, but sending a friend to live on my same street didn't cross my mind.

"Will just woke up. Can you walk?"
"Want to bring lunch over to my house today?"
"How about the playground this afternoon?"
"We've got to get out of the house. Can we come over?"

I've learned that black holes dry up in the presence of friendship.

Some of my friendships are 30 years old and others are just in their infancy, but the Lord has provided burden-carriers for me my whole life. And in my most recent trip down Black Hole Lane, He used other stay-at-home-mom friends to redirect me, even if they thought we were just taking our babies for a stroll.

You all know who you are.

The Lord says "weeping may remain for a night, but joy comes in the morning."

Who knew my joy in the morning would be in the form of a friend down the street?

I am humbled and thankful for His provision in my weakness.

When we traverse this road together, the world's hardest job certainly feels a little less hard.

Will and his twin girlfriends (he's the one not looking at the camera, of course!)