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Worth
By Sheri McGregor

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination, do not become the slave of your model.                                                                 Vincent Van Gogh

We all like a good bargain. Just be sure you don't sell yourself short.

Our Worth
When I was a kid, I remember the media making a big deal over a woman who'd climbed into her children's tree house and stayed there. She claimed she was on strike and wouldn't come down until her family learned what it was like to do their own laundry, cook their own meals, and perform all the other tasks they counted on her to do. Maybe by fending for themselves, her husband and children would see her value, the woman reasoned.

Detailed with that story was what a family might expect to pay for all the services the tree house woman (and so many others like her) performed. I don't recall the actual dollar values assigned, but the list of hats the typical woman wears today may even be longer--childcare worker, laundress, cook, chauffeur, confidant, counselor. . . . The list is endless, and would wrack up a small fortune in bills if you were to pay for each service.

As mothers, much of the time we spend with and for our families is a labor of love, and we wouldn't have it any other way. All of those duties and good family times aside, though, how much value are we putting on our personal dreams? Is time spent in their pursuit always last on our "to do" list?

If we answer yes, then we're only assigning ourselves value like that woman in the tree house. Yet, she was much more than a laborer--as are we. She was important to her family in ways her mundane services didn't fulfill.

For what are we really valued? Carve out the priorities and get them done, but realize that in the scope of life, things like laundry and dishes are probably less important than healthy pursuits that nurture the sparkle that's inside us (and in those around us).

Like Van Gogh's quotation above hints, we all have a model, or an ideal to which we aspire, but becoming a slave to that model is unwise. 

Hunt for bargains that make the most of your time. And don't sell yourself short.

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by Sheri McGregor and may not be reproduced without express permission.