The Holy Ground of Housework (and other Mundane Work)
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It's been a string on extraordinarily ordinary days lately.
Laundry. Homework. School drop offs. Packing lunches. Work. Making dinner.
Repeat.
It's easy to get exasperated and overwhelmed with the daily routines. Mounds of laundry. The piles of dirty dishes. The discipline that has to be doled out daily.
But God never designed it to be this way.
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3:23-24 ESV)
We are given grace to do the hard things. And grace to do the mundane things that can wear us out. Every toilet cleaned, every dinner cooked and every correction made is an act or service in God's eye and one that doesn't go unnoticed. So I'm not working for my family, I'm serving the Lord.
When I view mundane acts in this light, the kitchen become holy ground, as does the laundry room and every other area where I'm tempted to think it simply drudge work.
When offered up to God, even the every day tasks can be holy.
Mopping the floors is ministry? Sounds ludicrous. And it felt especially ludicrous to me as I mopped floors this weekend only to find them dirtied by three sets of little feet this week. But bless God those little feet who can dirty and who are still here alive and breathing. That I get to provide a clean, stable and loving home for them is an honor. An honor that many women want, but can't have.
Every act of service is counted worthy in God's eye. This small shift in perspective has changed my grumbling into holy wonder. God sees every little act I do and He honors it.
“This job [of motherhood] has been given to me to do. Therefore, it is a gift. Therefore, it is a privilege. Therefore, it is an offering I may make to God. Therefore, it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him. Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness.”
― Elisabeth Elliot