So Many Hats

Several years ago, one of the top 3 women in my life talked about us women wearing so many hats.  She was talking about teaching a message on that topic.  (I think she dreamed she was teaching it, and I'm believing that God-given dream is going to come to pass!)  For some reason that dream has stuck with me all these years.  She's so right.  We run from one thing to the next, all the while changing our hat as we go.  We can go from teacher to mother in 0.1 seconds.  We go from employee to wife in one phone call.  We switch from wife to friend and back to an employee all in a matter of minutes.  We are the "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer".  We are the self-elected plumber when the garbage disposal gets clogged.  We are a counselor in ministry.  We are notorious for balancing our relationships with everyone and then coming up dry in the end because we forgot about ourselves.  We always take the burned toast.

But God made us this way.  Proverbs 31 talks about a virtuous woman that truly wore many hats...and wore them well.  Of course, balance must always come into play.  God didn't call for us to run ourselves into the ground to the point that we become useless.  He makes it clear that the only way we're going to keep going (effectively) and the only way we're going to be able to balance all of those hats is to stay tapped into Him.  When I don't draw from Him on a regular basis, I find myself wanting to fight all of these responsibilities.  I dream of moving away to a private island and living peacefully and leisurely with my family.  Even a big 1,000 acre farm in the middle of nowhere seems appealing.  At least then I could limit my hat wearing to simpler, less stressful hats.  But I know that I wouldn't be fulfilled.  Running away never works anyways.  I would just be running into the arms of a whole other set of problems.  There would be a hurricane on the private island or on the farm I would be required to milk a cow or something.  If nothing else, I would be unfulfilled and fruitless if I only had one or two hats to wear.  The "simple life" comes with a price tag too.
"the sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied." Proverbs 13:4 (NIV)


I don't want to be an ordinary-average-guy gal.  I want my life to mean something.  I want to make a difference in the world.  I want to use up everything the Lord has given me.  I don't want to arrive at the throne room on Judgment Day with my pockets full of spiritual gifts and blessings that I should have used here on Earth.  "But someone who does not know, and then does something wrong, will be punished only lightly. When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required." Luke 12:48 (NLT)  The Lord has clearly entrusted me with much and continues to up the ante.  So I'll just buy a bigger hat rack and continue to do what I know is right and good.


Lord...help me to balance it all.