My worth in gold is nothing to my worth in love

Proverbs 22:6, Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Someone recently said to me, "So, Robbie, you stay home for a living?" I chuckled a little then looked at him (of course) and said back, "If by staying home for a living you mean not working outside the home, then yes, I 'stay home' for a living."
I also had a friend a while back say to me she wished she could stay home with her children everyday. I assured her it could be done with a little sacrifice on her and her husbands part. A well meaning friend who was listening said to us, "You can't do that! What and waste your degree sitting at home everyday?! You'd go crazy!" Trying to keep myself in check (not an easy task), I replied, "So it's okay for me to be a "stay at home Mom" because I do not have a degree, but not her because she has one?" The logic was lost on me. I have several women I know with varying degrees that stay home with their children, is it such a waste? Who says that a piece of paper on your wall and a steady paycheck replaces the joy of spending each day watching your little ones grow? Where did we go wrong as a society to make women think they must work to have meaning or to make ends meet? I have worked many jobs and placed my children in the care of wonderful, kind, loving people, and then cried all the way to work assuring myself I was doing the right thing. They were wonderful people who loved my children, but they weren't me.
Back to the gentleman who said to me, you "stay home for a living". He told me, "Well some of us have to work for a living." I then very sweetly responded back, "Well if you were to take all that I do within my household and calculate it into dollars and cents, you couldn't afford me." He then laughed and said he'd never thought of it that way.
I'm sure, no positive, that the debate will live on forever between mothers who stay home and mothers who work. I would never criticise a mother who works, she is doing what she feels she must to make ends meet or because she is a single mother.
I may not make a monetary contribution to my household, but Troy and I have made many sacrifices through the years so that I can be with our children, and now that I'm going to home school we will continue to make the needed sacrifices to fulfill our scriptural duty to our family. I cannot listen to those who would neigh say or criticise what we do or the decisions we have made. I can only listen to my heavenly Father and obey the commands He has for my life. Have a great day friends.

Titus 2:4-5, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, and to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.