“Our daily labors – be they in the marketplace or home – are opportunities for us to love others through our efforts. What we are called to do is not as important as how we do it. Because our Creator is working through us to accomplish His redemptive agenda, He transforms our labors among the thistles and thorns to transactions of love.”

Sometimes a snow day is just exactly what I need. Even though, for those of us who work from home, it’s not as easy to just take it as a day off (since, after all, our work is here with us) it can still be a great excuse to pull back a little and focus on a different kind of work. For me, I have a lot of reading I want to do when it comes to bettering myself as a business owner, but I always put it on the back burner because somehow reading seems like a luxury when there’s other work to be done. But on a day like today, curling up with a blanket and grabbing a book is just what I instinctively want to do. So I think that makes for a perfect opportunity to still be bettering my business, but with “work” that I seem to always claim I don’t have time for.

One book I’ve been working on for a while is called The Measure of Success and it covers the often controversial topic of what the Bible says in regards to women and their role in work (be it in or outside of the home). It’s actually been a lot different than you might expect it to be, and it spent a whole chapter discussing the history of work and why as mankind, in general, we’re tasked with it. Why it’s important. The opening quote in this post has been one of my favorites. Talk about giving work a purpose, right? Sometimes I can get so caught up in the what of work – what I need to accomplish, what I feel I’ll never get done, what I feel I’ll never be, etc., I can forget about the why. And that’s so much more important. If we don’t have a strong purpose behind what we do, it will quickly become meaningless, draining, and will lead to burn out.

So today, with the sun radiating off all of the crisp and pearly white outside my window, I’m curling up with the world’s softest blanket, my home made caramel-vanilla latte, and this book to invest a little more into the meaning of work, and the importance of why and how I’m called to do what I do. Taking time to recharge and build up my heart for my work and clients is vital to being self-employed. So, if anyone else has been needing permission to do the same, grab a blanket and let this snowy day be that excuse.

Happy Tuesday, friends.