For fifteen years, I was a Tupperware Lady. It was a choice we made before we had kids. One of our priorities when we got married was
to establish a household where one parent would be home to raise our
children. My Tupperware career was established
before the kids came along, so I had laid the groundwork that would support our
parenting plan.
This choice, to have one of us home to parent, came with
some sacrifices and also with some great opportunities. We had to find ways to live on a lower income
than most people, live in a modest house, clip a lot of coupons, cautiously
spend our resources and make some tough choices when it came to larger
purchases. But one of us was able to be
with our kids, watching them grow, teaching them, guiding them, learning with
them and parenting them for much of their young lives.
When we wanted to do something that had a large price tag,
we had to find creative ways to make it happen.
The year before our first child was born we took a trip to Poland, to
attend the wedding of a college friend to a nice Polish girl. That was nearly 21 years ago. They now live within two miles of us and are
some of our closest friends. Our kids
are close in age, and we joke that our boys were friends in utero.
Those fifteen years in Tupperware provided me some of the
best training of my life. Even though I
probably earned more in plastic bowls than in cash, my income goal was to be
able to pay the mortgage each month. I
think I accomplished that on an average.
I learned how to stand up and speak in front of a small to very large
group of people—from the party, to sales meetings, to regional meetings. I gained confidence in my ability to write,
to sell, to market myself, to bring others into the business. I owned my own business and had to learn how
to make good business decisions, treat people well, trust others and take
risks. I was a confidant to a hostess
for two weeks and would then move on to the next person. I was doing pastoral care and ministry, even
when I didn't realize it.
I was able to be with our kids, make healthy meals,
volunteer, be available for friends, help friends when they needed child care
and so much more. When I hear myself
saying, “I was only a Tupperware
Lady,” I have to remember all that I was.
I was not “only” anything. I was
creating a life and living life and becoming what God was planning for me. Even when I feel like my resume is “only,”
and think that I have to defend our choice, I know that what I did was something
immeasurable, undefinable and worthwhile.
I may not have been out in the corporate world, but the work I did, the
people I got to know in so many ways and the impact I had on my little world
made a difference.
Dear God, you have created people to do and be so many
different things throughout time. Help
us each to know our unique value to the communities in which we live. Help us to live with the confidence that what
we do matters, even when we think of what we do or what we have done as “only.” For you can be found in all things, in all
places, in all ways of living, if only we are willing to experience the Holy of
life. Amen.