My husband left this morning at 5 am, and I don't expect him back until 9:30 tonight.
It's here. The season of long hours and long weeks, visits to practices and field houses, losing tupperware and losing utensils and losing my patience.
Football season is upon us, wives, but I have something to tell you.
You are more than just a coach's wife.
It's easy to feel like your very life is revolving around that one role of coach's wife. Since, in his absence, you maintain the world he is leaving behind: the kids, the laundry, the bills, the house.
And in his presence, you participate in the world he's bringing home: watching film, feeding players, supporting from the stands on what feels like every night of the week.
But you are more than just a coach's wife.
That is not the title that defines you. Your identity is not found in it and your life is not completed by it.
You will read lots of articles in the coming weeks about the difficulty of being a coach's wife. And you'll be tempted to join into pity parties with other coach's wives about never seeing your husband.
And it IS hard. And we ARE working overtime. And we ARE exhausted.
But we are not just coaches' wives.
We are mothers, teachers, doctors, speech therapists, counselors, ministers, nurses.
And we are daughters of a Most High King.
A God who tells us we are working for Him and not for man. We are racing after a Heavenly reward, not an earthly one. We are cooking, cleaning, baking, supporting, bolstering, and sharing our lives with 100 teenage boys because we believe our lives are part of a greater calling, one that is not defined by wins or losses or even effort.
But by a loving, gracious God who gives us what we need in every season. Even football season.
He sees you and calls you by name. And he doesn't call you Coach's Wife.
He calls you Beloved.