Encouragement for the Mom with Sick Kids

Isn’t sick season your favorite time of year? Kidding, it’s the worst!

During these lovely 2 months (that drag into 3 months, and sometimes turn into 4 or 5 months) we spend many days at home containing our children’s germs. Your response to these inevitable days may come in a variety of forms…

Initially, you may feel like a softy and want to soak in the extra cuddly moments. But when sickness #47 hits, you can begin to find yourself frustrated that you’re canceling your plans again.

Then along comes irritation that your time is now getting sucked up doing who knows what, instead of the day’s “to-do list.”

Eventually, you might find yourself impatient as you wait hand and foot on a sick child, and all you hear is complaints and whining.

Finally comes exhaustion, as you feel overworked and underpaid, sleep-deprived, and annoyed that after cleaning up bodily fluids, and disinfecting the house – you get to do it all again while the sickness lingers or travels to the next child.

So how do we redeem such a day?

Well, the truth is, the day is full of value if all you did was take care of a sick child. This circumstance is not merely an interruption to your aspirations. You are looking at a job God has given you, and thus it has tremendous value.

Titus 2:4-5 explains the God-given role of a young mom (which, likely qualifies as you if you are reading this). The author, Paul, describes a young woman’s job specifically as loving her husband and children, being self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to her husband. Not every one of those descriptions necessarily describes your role with sick kids today, but many of them do!

First and foremost, realize this is certainly a way to love your children. As you care for them, sit with them, get them what they need, clean up after them, speak encouraging words to them, read to them, take them to the Dr., wake up in the middle of the night for them (for the 5th time!), you are putting their needs above your own — which is really loving them!

There are also plenty of opportunities to be“self-controlled.” Every complaint, need, or inconvenience gives you a chance to practice self-control. An abundance of opportunity exists to “work at home” on these sick days (Likely there is more work than there is time for!). And of course, there is opportunity to do all of this with “kindness.”

Today you are living out your “calling” as a godly “young woman.”

When you consider the value today has, may you be encouraged that what you are doing is pleasing to the Lord, and has great worth. May that motivate you to make each meal, clean up each mess, console each child, change each sheet, disinfect each room, with excellence…and more specifically with love, self-control, a hard work ethic, and with kindness.