"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy..." Psalm 16:11
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Now, do I anticipate making lunch (our main meal) six days a week? Is carrying a laundry basket of smelly clothes down to the basement washing machine fun for me? Or vacuuming?
Uhm, no. Not exactly.
But here's the thing: I refuse to allow myself to hate any household chore. Well, except for maybe cleaning the bathtub. ツ
Why? Because let's say I do 2 hours of cooking/cleaning 6 days per week starting at age 20 and ending at age 75.(Has anyone else ever thought that living 75 years upon Earth is plenty? Hmm?)
Well folks, that's a total of 34,320 hours of home care! (Seriously, I double-checked.)
Wow, 34,320 hours of this life God gave, even planned, detailed. And then for me to spend that huge portion of my allotted days hating what I'm doing, complaining about it aloud and within my heart?
No, that's simply too tragic even to imagine. What a huge waste.
So I choose not to hate housework. Instead, like a researcher, I'll seek ways to make the hours more pleasant. I'll--
play music while I work.
watch videos or read books which inspire me to enjoy homekeeping.
learn to follow Grace, her timing, her wise hints.
teach myself to anticipatate daily rituals.
find ways to work smarter, not harder.
I'll refrain from a complaining heart--or anything--which distracts from walking within a know-He's-there presence of God. Oh, to enjoy God even while mopping, dusting or sweeping!
When I reach Heaven and see things wildly clear, may I not suddenly gasp, "Oh no! While on Earth I could've lived with thousands of more hours of joy and flung that joy around to others in need! But instead, I complained my days away."
Oh dear. May that never, ever be.
And in case anyone is thinking they cannot do this, yes! You can through our God who makes a way when there appears to be none--
"Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." John 16:24
Part of our problem is we've been brainwashed into thinking housework is a waste of our lives. God doesn't believe that, though. It's important to Him that we care 'as unto Him' for the people and things He's given us.
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Tom and I were surprised by a good movie we found this weekend: I'll Follow You Down. We super enjoyed it as we do many with a hint of sci- fi--
but here's a spoiler warning alert:
... if suicide is a sad-for-days trigger for you, you may want to skip this one. Yet saying that, there is a happy ending which okay! Might be another spoiler, but you know? The vast majority of movies I recommend have happy endings since I'm just not into sad ones like some folks are. So there you go. ツ (We watched via Prime.)
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Oh and to my fellow preppers: you know there's such a thing as canned potatoes, right? I didn't discover this until 5 years ago and occasionally I find others who still don't know.
Incredibly handy in a pinch and terrific for your prepper shelves.
Oh! And here's another young woman who enjoys sharing her quick/easy/cheap meal recipes with us.
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And as I shared at Facebook:
If we'll guard against becoming overwhelmed by all the evil these days, we'll discover many opportunities to spread good!
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"For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15
3 comments:
I found canned potatoes several years ago when I was buying kabob ingreients and thought they might work. They did and were delicious. We have them quite often now.
I do love to keep house. I will turn music on if I"m able. I do like a neat house but I'm not super crazy about it. Two of our friends have a saying about our house that they made up. That it's clean enough to feel comfortable to put your feet on the coffee table, but dirty enough to feel comfortable to put your feek on the coffee table. I like that.
Blessings,
Betsy
What a great point about house work. I have heard people say they hate such and such job - and I just don't get it. I may not enjoy all of the jobs - but I, too, choose not to hate any of them.
Enjoy your day! Lisa :O)
My mom was a perfectionist when it came to cleaning...now that I think about it, she was driven in every single area of her life. She loved the Lord, though, and I'm pretty sure He made her the way she was. Gosh, just thinking about her "typical day" makes me want to find my recliner. Even though I'm not as particular as mom was, I appreciate an organized, clean home. The one thing I've learned in the past few years is that I need to pace myself. Rather than trying to clean the whole house in a day or two, I probably work an hour per day. Another thing that helps is cleaning up messes whenever they occur. We'll all probably need to work smarter as we age, but I hope to always be able to take good care of my home. Having a home is such a blessing. Debra, I love keeping canned potatoes on hand, too. They're so doggone easy to use. In fact, since I started prepping, I've been purchasing a big variety of canned fruits and veggies. There for awhile, I was steering clear of canned stuff, but I researched and learned they're still nutritious.
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