Women: Why what you do today matters even if you don’t feel like it

Women: Why what you do today matters even if you don’t feel like it

Guest post by Jennifer Rothschild

She greeted me when I walked into the cafeteria on Parents’ Day. Our oldest son was a freshman in college and this was the first time after dropping him off that we’d been back to visit. We’d met faculty, his resident director and lots of his new friends. So when this woman greeted me, I asked, “Tell me who you are?”

She hesitated. I wondered if I should know her? I imagine she looked down and saw my white cane and realized I couldn’t see her, and that’s probably why she answered in a voice as warm and inviting as dark hot chocolate, “Oh, Ma’am. I’m nobody. I just clean tables.”

“You are not a nobody! You are not just a table cleaner!” I told her. “I’m Jennifer. What’s your name?” She laughed and told me. I thought, Nobody is a nobody!

Nobody is just a table cleaner. Or just a mom. Or just a clerk or just a CPA or just a…anything! But we often find ourselves in places or seasons of life where we feel like a nobody. We don’t realize we matter and what we do matters.

But, girl, everything you do matters because women have incredible influence!

Here are three reasons why what you do today matters, even if you don’t feel like it.

1. You Are Setting the Tone

Because women tend to be more intuitive, we have an uncanny ability to read the tone in a room. Women can walk in and know immediately that something is wrong or sense a hostile undertow.

But, just as a woman can sense the tone of a situation, she can also set the tone. A smile, well-chosen words or wisely timed silence can change the entire atmosphere. Whether you know it or not, you are like a thermostat when it comes to setting the tone. What you do, what you say, how you respond — all set the tone in your home or office.

So, ask yourself, if I’m a thermostat, what is the temperature I’m setting? Is it warmth and acceptance? Is it positivity and peace? Then, stand up tall sister, chin up, and realize that you what you do today matters because you are setting the tone wherever you are.

2. You Are Sending a Message

Women say so much even before we open our mouths! Like sonar, we transmit approval or judgment, love or rejection, positivity or negativity.

Throughout the day, you are sending these messages to everyone around you. When you are at the store for a quick errand and the cashier is not helping with the quick part of the errand, what message are you sending? Or, when your husband or children don’t fold the laundry just like you would have done it, what message are you sending? No matter if it’s at work, home or in-between, are you saying, “You are valuable”? Or, instead, are you saying, “You don’t matter”?

Just as we can be purposeful in how we set the tone, we can be purposeful to send messages that convey the value of each person who crosses our path. Now, those seemingly meaningless moments matter, right?!

3. You Are Shaping the Future

Women don’t just touch runny noses on chubby faces. Women don’t just touch computer keyboards, cash registers or blood pressure cuffs. Women touch eternity.

Everything you do can make an eternal impact on someone’s life and in our world. Are you teaching a classroom full of students? You are shaping the future. Are you leading a team of professionals to complete a big project? You are shaping the future. Are you at home surrounded by toys and kids? You, my friend, are shaping the future.

It may seem like the daily tasks are just that – tasks. But, the reality is that each day, each moment, you have the opportunity to touch lives and make an eternal impact.

No matter what you do, sister, you matter and what you do today matters. So, next time you feel like a nobody, remember, you are the somebody God wants to use to set a tone of love and acceptance, send messages of truth and shape the future for good.

Jennifer

P.S. Do you know a woman in ministry who is setting a tone of love, sending messages of truth and shaping the future for good? Nominate her for the womensministry.net 40 Under 40 campaign! We are celebrating 40 women under the age of 40 who are outstanding leaders, and we’d love for you to join us. Learn more at womensministry.net/40under40.

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Jennifer Rothschild is a recovering perfectionist who has learned to live beyond limits ever since her life drastically changed at the age of fifteen, when she lost her sight. Now, more than 30 years later, she boldly and compassionately teaches women how to find contentment, walk with endurance and celebrate the ordinary.

As a speaker and author, Jennifer travels internationally, offering fresh, grounded, Biblical truth to audiences who, like her, are determined to pursue healthy and fulfilling lives in spite of their circumstances. She is the founder of womensministry.net where women in ministry leadership are equipped and encouraged, and the author of 12 books, including the best-selling Lessons I Learned in the Dark, and her newest book, Invisible: How You Feel is Not Who You Are. Jennifer and her Dr. Phil live in Springfield, Missouri, and have two sons, Connor and Clayton, and a lovely daughter-in-law, Caroline.