Like many people, I started a Blog. I see so many others doing it I figure, why not me? I'm opinionated, outspoken, I can do that. And then of course, after a handful of blogs...I slack off. Or actually sort of fell off the face of the earth, to be more correct. Like most people...my life got busy.
Along with the business of my life, came some changes. Drastic ones actually. My blog use to be called "Real Moms Drink Wine" --I thought it was cute, catchy, funny. And ode to the new idea/picture of modern stay-at-home moms who spend all week caring for their children, their husbands, their homes...only to go out and get tanked on Friday nights with their girlfriends. It seems to become the new icon of American moms. There seems to have developed this idea of either the working mom or stay at home mom who is so devoted to her family, running around, perfectly polished yet frantic all at the same time. A woman who runs her home, runs her family...all of course at the moderate aide of her husband. But that portrays her as in charge, doing it all...so she deserves her drunken night in or out on the weekend.

It has become very clear the new image of the new millennium mom. It's on television...TV shows & ads, in movies, magazine ads, pop culture. It's everywhere. And I bought into it. Going through my own trials in life...some mild, some significant--possibly life changing. I began to look closer at this view of the modern American mom. Because she is sipping her spirits from a wine glass with perfect make up while playing board games with her family, does that some how make it better then knocking back a few shots of whisky? Because this mom is functioning well on her 3rd glass of wine while on her 'girls night out' at the restaurant...is that so different then pounding 3 shots of tequila at a night club? It came to me....no. It's all the same. Drinking is drinking. No matter how hard I worked and sacrificed during the week. Is that my excuse to get a good buzz on just because it's a weekend? Does my service as a Christian woman to my husband, to my children, to my community, to my God stop...just because it's the weekend? If I proclaim to be a Christian, in the most literal sense of the word...as in, I am a follower of Jesus Christ, He is my Lord, and as He is my Lord I will follow what He says --that is the instructions for my life laid out in the Bible. And there are many, many instances in the Bible in which drunkenness is warned against by my Lord.

Recently at my children's end of the school year award ceremony (in which my amazing children received multiple awards, I might add) -- a mom of my son's best friend, who I like very  much, made a comment about my Facebook posts on drinking. She was light-heartedly joking, but it stopped me in my mental tracks. 'Am I giving off the appearance of evil?' This is a woman, on my Facebook friends list. Who, in all honesty doesn't seem to spend nearly half the time on Facebook as I do (all of my family are out of state and I keep them up-dated on our lives through Facebook contact)...but even with her limited Facebook activity, she noticed my jokes and joke posts about drinking. Things I may find funny...even if I don't indulge all that often. It was an eye opener to me. As a self proclaimed Christian, how am I presenting myself to the public? The few people close to me, know full well I am just joking with I 'share' those ecard pictures with the funny punch lines --but those who only know me through my children...like their teachers, their friend's parents. What must they think of me, my household, my family-- I have always been very self confident. I have not since 9th grade been very concerned with what others thought of me. I feel blessed to have that. I have my standards and now my God, and I answer to them alone. But...now that my life is not just about myself but also about how I represent my husband, children and the Lord I follow to the world, I have become very aware of my shortcomings, flaws, and down right stupidity along these lines. In posting so many jokes and such about alcohol on my Facebook profile, I have been giving off a very un-Christian like, un-flattering picture of my family. A very un-flattering picture of our lives and how we live our lives. And I feel very convicted on that.

At my heart, I am a traditionalist. I believe that my place is in the home. My service is to my husband and my children, my home...my family at a whole. I believe that women entering the workforce is what disrupted the economy of this country, and now, most women do not have the option to stay at home with their children. They must work to help support their family. I believe that women entering the workforce made it easier for men to step out on their wives and develop affairs. I believe that women's liberation is to blame for most of what is wrong with America and our society today. Men may rule the world, but it is women who set the moral standards. And when American women became liberated and lost all morals to the point in which 'anything goes'...they destroyed the ideals of the 'American Family'.