Monday, July 27, 2009

House keeping for the glory of God

I have recently realised how easy it is to place keeping house above loving people. I am not implying that having a clean house and loving those who live in it are necessarily in conflict! However, I have some serious physical limitations due to a back injury and sometimes I just don't have the strength to do all I want in my home. Recently I've found it easy to resent the mess that people inevitably create. When I do this I'm forgetting that my home and everything in it are to serve people. Nothing in my home matters eternally except the people who walk through its doors. If welcoming and loving people means that at times my house is not even the slightest bit neat, that should be OK. Often, I want my house to be neat and clean because I like it that way. My motive is self, not the glory of God or the good of other people. In the context of this, I've appreciated revisiting Lindsay's blog post Serving vs. Enjoying Our Families. As Christian wives, mothers and homemakers our most important work is to create and maintain loving, joyful and vibrant relationships with our families and our God, and from that place to reach out into our churches and communities. When we do prioritise these things, and use our homes to serve and enjoy people, our  house keeping can glorify God.

1 comment:

  1. I am so with you on this, Sherrin. I often continue to battle this fight against self and perfectionism on a daily level, myself, 4 children later I don't think it gets any easier.

    I too, suffer back and knee problems, which make everyday scrubbing and cleaning take longer than it would for the average woman, so I too tend to get snipy and snarly, when the one's I love mess it up.

    I still find myself apologizing for the mess, if I haven't got everything just so when people come over. I'm striving both to overcome these feelings, as well as finding small moments during the day to do "part tasks" and work towards the bigger cleanup jobs that I usually have to leave to school holiday time, when I'm not homeschooling.
    Claire

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