I work part time due to real financial needs. For me it’s the best solution as I spend most of my time with my family and I can help to contribute to the household financially. Having said that, I have never been a career-ladder type of person, but I’ve just tried to give of my best wherever I’ve been employed – in short my motto is work to live, not live to work.
Lately I’ve read quite a few blogs regarding the old SAHM (stay at home mother) vs WOHM (work outside the home mother) debate, in particular criticism of mothers who work outside of the home on the basis that they have become “too accustomed” of a two-income household. My mind boggles with how one is supposed to afford London rents/mortgages, council tax, rising utility costs and all the necessary living items (and no, I’m not thinking of luxury holidays, iPods or even Sky TV) on one salary, especially during this recession. This irritates me as for many households there are real financial difficulties and sadly even part time work isn’t an option.
Is being a SAHM the Christian ideal or merely a middle-class one? I’m wondering as both my husband and I struggled to think of anyone that we know personally who had a parent who didn’t go out to work, but rather had to do the (often menial or unskilled) jobs to put food on the table. Are you working class and manage on one income? Please tell me how you do it!
“It’s not about religion, but about relationship.”
I’ve heard this many times since I’ve been a Christian. Okay, I am a bit of a pedant at heart and disagree with the denigration of the term “religion”. Here’s the Oxford English Dictionary definition:
religion
• noun1 the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. 2 a particular system of faith and worship. 3 a pursuit or interest followed with devotion.
— ORIGIN originally in the sense life under monastic vows: from Latin religio ‘obligation, reverence’.
If you talk about relationship as opposed to “religion”, I think I do understand what you’re getting at, that Christianity is not about dead formalism or fake, shallow devotion to God. I just think that when we say things like “I’m not religious” though, we should be careful to explain what that means. It’s possible that I could be thinking too much into this, but the phrase is wide open to various interpretation. For instance, someone could deduce that it means that it’s unnecessary to fellowship with other believers, if their idea of the word “religion” means going to church. Or to them it could mean that you don’t bother with “religious” stuff, such as reading and studying the Bible or prayer. Someone else could wonder if the phrase means that the person saying it is a bit of a fruit-loop, tree hugging, woolly hippy type and dismiss them accordingly. Or perhaps they could simply think that you’re trying to somehow “trick” them, and trying to repackage Christianity to “sell” to them?
As I said before, I could be over thinking this and may be way off the mark. But I do believe that “religion” isn’t a dirty word. From the King James Version of the Bible:
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27)
One of my resolutions (by the way, I don’t just have them at new year, I need resolutions all year round!) is to be more accurate in how I speak about the Lord and the things of God… and while it is true that once we are born again we do have a relationship where we can cry “Abba, Father”, we must be clear about how we get that relationship and how mere church attendance or other vain worship pales just doesn’t cut it.
Christmas is approaching and I’m sure many are talking about whether or not to tell their children about Santa Claus/Father Christmas. Here’s an interesting story – an uproar when 7 year olds were told by their teacher that Santa doesn’t exist.
My own parents never taught me about Santa. Not for any particular reason other than that they weren’t taught about it either so it simply didn’t occur to them to give some mythical figure who somehow made it down our blocked chimney the credit for giving me gifts that they bought with their hard earned cash.
Here’s an excellent article from Thabiti Anyabwile on why he’s saying “Down With Santa Claus”
Are we popular with the world? We don’t seek to be unpopular as it were, by being unloving; however if we are of God, we can expect to be mocked, ridiculed, scorned and hated as Jesus was.
Well, my husband and I went to the Unashamed concert last night. The only downside – and this is minor – was that we felt OLD among so many young people, LOL
Lecrae, Trip Lee, Tedashii and Sho Baraka were careful to make sure that the Lord Jesus was exalted above all else and they proved to be ministers of the gospel who happen to be rappers. I was convicted to evangelise more and to be salt and light. Awesome!
By the way, I do find it ironic that many look down on holy hip hop and dismiss it as worldly, when many CCM and gospel music are theologically weak or shaky yet the same people often have no problem with it… hmm…
