Enjoy The Fruits Of You Labor!

Lately I keep having this reoccurring thought, "Why don't people do what they love and are passionate about doing?"

Maybe it's an easy question for me to ask because I'm a stay at home mom and I don't technically have a "job". I don't wake up every morning spend an hour and half getting ready to drop the kids off at daycare, hop on a bus and enjoy the 20 minute ride downtown, walk the 3 or 4 blocks to an office building, sit at my cubical, drink coffee with my co-workers and make "water cooler conversations" and of course working............. anymore.

While I was working in cooperate America I took a class about career moves. I found out I wasn't doing anything that I wanted to do. I wanted to be in ministry, working with children, living overseas!! The idea of spending 10+ hours away from my family everyday to sit in a dark room and file or stare at a computer for hours on end wasn't what I wanted be doing. I remember in that class one of my co-worker friends looked at my cards (that show you the things you're good at and interested in) and she said, "You should just quit and go work in an orphanage." to which I replied, "I would love that!"

Today during my quiet time with Jesus I was reading Ecclesiates 3, 4 & 5. I found some interesting scriptures, take a look:

3:9-13

^"9 What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. ¹¹ Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. ¹² So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. ¹³ And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God."

5:18-20

"¹⁸ Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life. ¹⁹ And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God. ²⁰ People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past, for God has given them reasons for joy."

It is a gift from God to truly enjoy your work! Some days I myself have a hard time enjoying my "work". I would rather go sit in a quiet cubical and file a million papers than listen to whiny children who don't want to use a fork to eat their food and would rather just drink milk for lunch. But those days are nothing compared to the ones where I spend hours playing with my children, reading them books, teaching them songs, taking them to the library and doing projects.

I am blessed to be able to stay home with my kids and I don't always appreciate that blessing. Staying home is a sacrifice. It's not always easy. I would love to work and have enough money to not live paycheck to paycheck and to go shopping and buy things I want! But I remember that the things they learn in the first five years will shape who they become as adults. So while my job might seem "small" in the day to day, it will greatly impact their future.

I want to remember to truly ENJOY the cards that I have been dealt!