"Your body is the first thing any child of man ever wanted. Therefore dispose yourself to be loved, to be wanted, to be available. Be there for them with a vengeance. Be a gracious, bending woman. Incline your ear, your heart, your hands to them.... To be a Mother is to be the sacrament - the effective symbol - of place. Mothers do not make homes, they are our home." from Bed and Board, Robert Farrar Capon

Thursday, December 29, 2011

New Every Morning

Some encouraging excerpts from:  "Keeping House – The Litany of Every day Life" 
by Margret Kim Peterson.

  • "God is the creator and has given  [us the] privilege of imitating and participating in God’s work as creator. 
  •  God ... started with chaos and ended with a...beautiful universe.
  • Housework is all about bringing order out of chaos. 
  • That heap of damply repulsive clothes on the bathroom floor turns into stacks of neatly folded clean laundry in a matter of hours...
  • A table piled high with junk mail, school papers, and forgotten socks turns into a table neatly set for a meal...
  • A sack of potatoes ...turns into a dish of mashed potatoes ...
  • Housework is never "done" in the same sense ... that God's providential involvement in the world is never done."
(End of excerpts)

To sum up: We keep house because we love our families. And we won't be all done today. We will wake up again tomorrow, and receive the gift of another day, and the privilege again, of honorable work to fill our hands.  We take care of our families, who love and appreciate us in return. 

True, some things are more fun to do than others. Making cookies may be more fun than cleaning toilets. But we still clean the toilet. And we don't fall into self pity over it.  We even make a game out of it, and it actually can be fun.  
After all, every person on earth has parts of their job that are unpleasant and would be avoided if possible. 

As homemakers, we are privileged to be servants of all, and Jesus tells us, "The greatest among you is the servant of all". He himself demonstrated, by subjecting himself to death on the cross  for our sins.


And, oh the wonderful fragrance in a home where being servant of all is being taught! You can smell it from way down the block!



6 comments:

  1. Thanks Mary. Very inspiring. I have some damply repulsive laundry to get started. Then, I'll set the table with my fun, colorful dishes and make some cookies for a tea party with my grand kids today. :-D

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  2. Thank you for visiting and commenting on my blog :). It's always nice to hear from other like-minded Moms. Hope you had a Merry Christmas!

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  3. Cathy - I spent a lot of my day today turning my own repulsive laundry piles into orderly, folded clothing. :-)

    MameyJane - Welcome to our blog. I'm always encouraged to see again that there actually are a lot of mothers who consider keeping home and caring for their husband and children a high calling - so I like your blog name!

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  4. Cathy,

    Thank you for your post on my blog about Mary and her feelings. I have enjoyed looking around your blog very much. Thank you for the book reference too! I haven't heard of that book but will definitely be looking it up. Your comments were an encouragement to me.

    Kristen

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  5. Thank you for stopping by my blog!! :)

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  6. Welcome to the blog Kristen and "They call me mommy" - p.s. what a nice name to have!

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