What Is Your Work Worth Per Hour?

Someone who knows told us that Christian women in Asia do not understand their special ness as a woman due to their culture and former religion.   That was on Wednesday evening at an IGO presentation.  Thursday a lady told me that women tend to think they are not worth as much as men per hour of work. 

Both Asian and American women seem to have trouble finding peace about their personal worth to themselves.  It’s not a new problem and every woman understands the feelings more or less.  But of any group of women in our world, Christian women ought to be the most settled about the question.

I don’t claim to be able to solve it for anyone else; but I would like to say that it’s been good for me to evaluate the good that I try to be by choosing to value my work as priceless.

Our own worst enemy is self.  And the most dangerous mind game is comparison.  For me to compare my work hours with my husband’s work hours and how we’re each getting paid is ludicrous.  There’s no comparison at all between what he does in his waking hours and what I do.  To think that my worth is somehow tied up in getting an hourly wage is demeaning. Who is going to be the nurturer, the home maker, and wear all the hats I wear so that he and the family can do what they need to do?  There’s not enough money in the world to “pay” a woman!

Every godly woman either Asian or American finds out that when she is a servant trying to be Jesus to everyone, she is content.  If she feels servile and used, she is unhappy and empty.

It’s all about attitude.  Do I feel used and under-rated? Or do I choose to be useful, painting every room in my life with the brush of order and something pretty to please others…and myself.

There is a richness that comes with working at creating beauty and peace for a busy family in today’s world.  And it doesn’t have to be expensive. I have been delighted with the “crumbs from the rich man’s table” that I have found at used shops for use in our home. Women who understand contentment are still turning collars, too, in a lot more ways than we’re ever going to say.  It’s fun to rearrange a room and rejuvenate the larder when we are making an art of it and doing it for pleasure instead of pay.

Order and warmth and good food at the end of the day for everyone is most fulfilling.  I don’t do it for an hourly wage; I do it because I know that nobody else can do it like we need to have it done.  Any woman can indulge in that legitimate pride and contentment in her own world if she chooses.