Her Dream of Becoming a Nurse Became a Nightmare
A woman shared this privately with me on Instagram last week. I asked her if I could share it because it’s so powerful. She said, “Yes!” Here it is:
“I am a divorced 30 year old woman. I was a terrible wife, and my husband was physically abusive but I was also emotionally abusive to him. We both did wrong, and I regret the divorce. I moved in with my 90 year old grandma after our separation, and I continue to work as a registered nurse. I was laid off from my job recently and have just been staying with my grandma.
“Now, I don’t work. We don’t have to pay caregivers to come into the home while I’m at work. I have time to play games with her, help her with sewing projects, make her meals, and tend to her needs. She is happy to have me with her all the time, and I’m so happy to care for my own grandma instead of paying someone else to take care of her while I took care of someone else’s grandmas and grandpas. Craziest part of all is my mental and physical health have improved greatly. I am sleeping well at night, no longer have muscle tension, no more headaches, no more racing heart.
“It was always my dream to be a nurse. Now, I realize my ‘dream job’ put huge stress on me, destroyed my marriage, and took me away from my family. My sins have been committed, and I’ve asked God for forgiveness and hopefully restoration of my marriage someday. Until then, I will remain a stay-at-home granddaughter.
“Grandma is delighted to have me home with her, and I have never been happier in my life. Before this experience, I hated what you had to say about women in the workforce and thought you were wrong. The drastic improvement in my mental and physical health after loosing my job made me realize I wasn’t made for the workforce.”
This isn’t uncommon, women. I was stressed in the workforce. I am not stressed at home. Sure, there are times that are stressful, but it’s not ongoing as it is in the workforce. We weren’t created for the workforce. We were created for the home.
He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD!
Proverbs 113:9
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6 thoughts on “Her Dream of Becoming a Nurse Became a Nightmare”
I never had career aspirations. I worked retail for a couple years before we got married and haven’t worked outside the home since. We now have 5 children so i am very busy in the home with schooling, cleaning, cooking, etc.
I have never understood women putting so much value into a career because I never was in that head space. Very interesting to hear this lady’s story. Let’s pray God restores her marriage!
Hello Lori,
This is such a beautiful story. But I am wondering who will look after the patients in hospitals if all female nurses leave their jobs. Thank you.
Hi Mary, You don’t need to worry about this since few will leave the nursing profession. I teach Christian women who want to live in obedience to God. We are a remnant.
Hi Mary,I believe that there is a place for those women who are single to be nurses. However they must be prepared to leave their jobs once married if the husband request she do so.
In the old days (and still very much in Amish communities) young women were teachers until the day they married, then they were to stay home and focus on building her home. It was very rare that’s married woman taught.
But at the same time, I believe the young lady should stay home and be under her father’s authority and have a respectful and obedient attitude as well. But my opinion doesn’t necessarily reflect Lori’s.
God bless!
I was blessed to be able to stay at home and care for my children and look after my home. In those days one income was sufficient. We live in Ireland and the cost of living is ridiculous. My married daughter is planning on giving up work when her children come along but given the cost of rent here it’s not going to be easy. It’s those women I feel for. Those who want to be in the home in their God given role but find that one income does not cover the basics. May the Lord help them as they endeavor to live as the women of God He calls them to be.
Mary – I was a CNA (certified nursing assistant) for a few years while I was single. My training was only 3-6 months of classroom, then a practicum in a nursing home. I got a job at the same nursing home where my practicum was and worked there off-and-on for 3-4 years until I was injured, then I moved on to medical transcription which was work I could do from home. I lived w/ my widowed Grandma a 5-minute walk from my parents place.
The work I did as a CNA trained me in caring for all the practical daily living activities of elderly/disabled people. Those skills will come in handy someday should I need to care for aging parents or other disabled relatives. The RN’s had to go to school much longer than I did and my observation in the nursing home is that CNA’s did most of the physical care while nurses did most of the paperwork, wound-dressing, giving needles, special treatments, etc.
My advice to young single ladies who want to be nurses is to get their CNA certification and work in the field for a little while to become better trained because it’s such a short course and equips them to do most of the care that sick/elderly/disabled folks need. If enough ladies had the CNA training it would equip them to care for elderly folks in the home instead of sending them to nursing homes.
Learning to cook healthy food, use natural home remedies and basic first aid would equip women to help our aging population stay healthier longer. I think if wives/moms were home cooking healthy food there would not be as much need for all the hospitals, doctors and nurses.
Just my two cents!
I was a RN in the early 1990s until we married. I think it is all about keeping your priorities in focus. I met my husband — a MD — through work. I put what I learned in nurses school to good use by figuring out exactly the best day in my monthly cycle to have “car trouble” and “need a ride home.” He got an extra special thank you that was more than just a home cooked meal, and we went to the courthouse to get married four weeks later. That was six children and four grandchildren ago. I never went back to work at the hospital after we married. I can’t tell you how many scraped knees and worse I have tended over the years. So being a nurse definitely changed my life for the better, but only because I had a clear plan that I didn’t want a career, I wanted a family with a good man I could take care of.