For The Mom Stuck At Home With Sick Littles

Sick season. My favorite time of year. Not.

During these lovely 2 months…that drag into 3 months, and sadly turn into 4 or 5 months…we spend many unexpected 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 is 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.

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Prayer 4 the “Sick-of-Sickness” Mom

Lord, please forgive me for any pride in my heart that has caused me to think I have something better to do with my time than take care of my children. Thank you for giving me these children to care for. I am thankful for this role you have assigned me. 

Lord help me to be a godly woman, to really do all I do because of love. Help me to be described as “self-controlled,”  a good “worker at home,” and “kind.”  May I never see a sick day as merely an inconvenience to be avoided, but rather an opportunity to faithfully live out the job you have given me.