The Love Behind Housework

We forget something quite often: If the world collectively says one thing, then probably the opposite is true.

Case in point: Housework has openly been declared unimportant, a waste of time and meaningless. It's been written that cleaning one's house can be done by the brainless, so it need not be done by the wise, the educated or the 'important people.'

Phooey.

Keeping a clean, comfortable home matters. It always will. What am I saying to Tom and Naomi (and even our cats) if I let my housework go? If we are living in a dusty, cluttered rat trap, I am (I believe) saying I don't care about my family's health and sense of peaceful well-being. 

Cleanliness is not only next to godliness, it's next to healthiness, also. And most everyone knows that health matters. A lot.

It matters to me that Tom and I don't spend hours each week looking for lost keys, bills, bags, phones or remotes. It's important that we not waste time and be unnecessarily frustrated or set on-edge. And ok, sometimes we do misplace things. But I try to do my part in having a place for everything and--well, you know the rest.

Yes, we could hire people to clean for us and I might do that if I had an outside job. But I will never consider cleaning my home to be 'beneath me.' 

Instead, I'll always view washing dishes as a means to serve those I love. Dusting, vacuuming and doing laundry illustrate ways of caring that my family lives in a pleasant, safe environment.

I'm not speaking about an out-of-balance, obsessive-compulsive, walk-all-over-me kind of slavery. No, I'm just saying that housework is such a daily, Monday-through-Sunday, 365 days-a-year sort of thing so why not approach housecleaning as a privilege rather than an annoying burden? How much better to come to the end of my life having enjoyed every day, every task that was mine to do and to have done my best in caring for the family God gave me.



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Quote of the Day: Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.
William James (1842 - 1910)