MULTI-TASKING
DOING WHAT MOTHERS DO BEST

Written by Luz Leigh – 22 January 2008

      The magazine lay there waiting for me to read. It’s been a long wait because this is the September 2005 issue of a ladies’ magazine. I enjoy scanning through magazines that don’t take a lot of thought to digest. This is one such magazine.

      There on the cover was the promise that I could lose my belly in fifteen minutes. Now this is something that has taken me years to grow. Why would I want to shuck it off in fifteen minutes? Oh, wait, the smaller print refers to 15-minute plan that begins on page 56. I flip to that page, and, hmmmm, seems I have looked at this magazine before. The page is folded down as if I planned to return to it. This plan included some very intense exercises, something I am not good at. Let’s flip the page.

      Ahhh, this is much more to my liking. This section begins with slow cooker recipes for such goodies as turkey thighs and beans or cranberry pork roast. It progresses to brownie points. Now we are talking. Those writers really knew how to speak to my heart. Blissful chocolaty desserts from a brownie mix could woo almost anyone to the kitchen in search of a chocolate fix.

      Thrown in among all the food were the advertisements about controlling our cholesterol, cutting calories, eating enough fiber and chewing the right gum to keep our breaths fresh. You gotta love this magazine.

      Here is what I should have read many years ago. The article on how to leave the daily grind and the chores behind. I’m told I should not multi-task. Now did you know that what I did all those years while my kids were growing up had a name….”multi-tasking”. I didn’t. I just thought that was what mothers did. You sit at the dining table with your children, helping with their homework as best you could until it became too difficult for you, all the while you are writing out checks to pay the monthly bills and keeping an eye on the supper that is cooking on the stove. If you didn’t do these things simultaneously, how would it all get done before bedtime?

      This section also told me I did not have to dry the pots and pans (was I supposed to do that?) The next one I really like. Don’t pay someone to watch your child while you clean; rather pay someone to clean while you play with your little one. Funny thing. I cleaned and played. No wonder I got tired.

      Out of curiosity, I checked to see if the Bible had any words about slow cookers. I found about ten references to slow to anger. Not a one referencing slow cooker. Even the word cooker was not found, only cook or cooks about three times.

      The word belly is mentioned almost 50 times; none of which said anything about my needing to lose it. 

      No wonder I didn’t know about multi-tasking. That word is not mentioned one time in the Bible.

      What I did find was the description of an almost perfect wife and mother in Proverbs 31. With all the noble characteristics of a wife mentioned, how could this woman do the things that are expected of her without multi-tasking? She rose at dawn, worked eagerly with her hands, opened her arms to the poor and extended her hands to the needy. She sewed clothing for her husband, whom she honored. In verse 27 we are told “She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.” This has been my goal for many years; to be described as a wife of noble character. Fallen short, but I keep trying.