Moms Don’t Get Sick Days and Love Like Jesus

Our family is a YLEO family and has been for almost 3 years. This means that instead of heading to the doctor at the first sign of sickness I head for my essential oil kit; actually that thing is never far from me. It also means that my medicine cabinet includes very little actual bottles of what qualifies as formulated “western” medicine and is full of little colorful oil bottles as well. Due to the use of these oils, my family rarely gets sick and has heightened immunity, but recently that was quite the opposite of my experiences. My husband can attest that no day goes by that I don’t use an oil for something. It’s surprising if I haven’t reached for those bottles every hour. Daily, I clean my house with them, I use them for my son’s skin and sleep, my daughter’s tummy, cuts/scrapes/bruises, for my dog’s anxiety…you name it. Last week I even used them to help ease a recently rusted pin from my patio umbrella back into position to prepare for the hurricane that camped out with us. I don’t know how I would survive without them! However last week when I found myself sick with a severe sinus infection after battling mastitis twice in the last 3 weeks, Mommy was down for the count. I found myself sicker than I had been in a long time, running a fever that would span five days, yes FIVE long days! I also found myself solo for my husbands lengthy work days, and because we don’t have family here that means one thing: no sick days for Mommy.

There were little options for comfort and relief so I took the antibiotics prescribed cringing with every pill and prayed hard for quick relief. It took a few days of laying low and even tears from Mommy but I got over it all. My point for writing about all that background is simple. Addy had never seen me so sick since our household rarely gets ill. I believe it both scared and intrigued her. The first time I gave in to my fever and collapsed on the couch my daughter immediately stopped and noticed. Justin had just came in the door and was working to feed the kids their dinner. Addy got down from her seat and gingerly walked over to me. She gave me a kiss on the forehead and told me she would be back. She returned promptly with a pack of crackers and said, “Here Mommy, these are to make you feel better”. With another kiss on my hand she peered up at me with her big blue eyes and asked, “Did I make you feel better Mommy?” If only she could know just how much better she made me feel. She wrapped her little arms around me and told me she loved me before heading back to the dinner table as Daddy was calling her to eat her dinner.

That is the kindness I always want my daughter to have for others. That is the care and concern that I want her to always take when approaching other people who may be in need. Though Mommy’s don’t get sick days, I wouldn’t trade one day…one second with my children. My reason for waking each day is to attempt to pour God’s love and wisdom into those children, so that they in turn can pour that same love into the world. I thank God daily for my husband and the children that He has loaned to us. I frequently forget how brilliant children are, how much they soak up and their uncanny ability to take in, understand, and display all that they see. So Moms, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, when I remind you that it’s worth it, and you’re doing a great job. It’s worth every sleepless night, every early morning, it’s worth doing dishes and putting away toys long after little eyes have closed in their beds, it’s worth endlessly running your washer and dryer and still never being caught up on laundry, it’s worth every non-sick day and so much more.

Addisyn is 2-years-old, yet her spirit is exactly as I want to keep her. She and Josiah have so much to learn and see, both good and bad. Society will tell them that they’re both too good and not good enough; my husband and I will tell them they are perfect in the eyes of the Lord. Society will make them feel they both owe others and are also owed or entitled themselves; we will teach them that Jesus has paid all of their debts and to Him all praise is given. Society will be cruel to them, and encourage them to join in with the greed, impatience, and evil that is accepted as the norm these days; we will teach them that they are the hands and feet of Jesus and pray that they always love like Him above all else.