The Littany of Everyday Life

When I first came home from our trip to Papua New Guinea,

I found myself temporarily feeling like I was hating the life I came back to.

I had to ask the Lord to keep my heart and my love where it needed to be.

I could have sold everything and gone back to PNG with the family in a whipstitch.

But everything was back to old hat,

and sometimes the hat seems so terribly, terribly old.

Same old house.

Same old problems.

Same old almost-empty cistern.

(At least in PNG it was a different almost-empty cistern!) 

Same old church. 

Same old people. 

Same old kids.

Same old jobs.

Same old life.

 Jonathan and I both love working with and on missions--it was both of our calling, 

and still is.

Working together to replace the broken window up at the mission church in Denver recently--on our way to estimate a job at a cabin further in the mountains--

was just an example of what we both love to do, especially if it can be together. 

But the Lord was so good to drop this beautiful little book into my hands a few weeks ago.

I found it at the library.

Keeping House: the Litany of Everyday Life, by Margaret Kim Peterson.

Just like some people feel that farming or gardening or walking in nature teaches them about God,

so this simple, delightful book shares how common, ordinary housework can truly 

teach us lessons about God and life.

In the author's simple, charming style, she would talk about everything from cooking to doing dishes to laundry, to ironing.

Ironing is symbolic of perfecting, she would say, and how when you iron a clean shirt or dress or curtain, you are working with God to make something beautiful and perfect--

just as He works regularly to make something more perfect out of us!

Mending can teach us that we do not have to throw away something that has been torn, ripped, or is missing a button.

It is possible to mend.

Mending reminds us that God does not throw us away when our hearts are broken and torn.

It is possible to be mended.

And we need not despair if a relationship in our life is broken or torn or hurting--

relationships can be mended, too.

And then the author talked about cooking--a lot!

"Magazine headlines in the...checkout aisle ('From Desperation to Dinner in 15 Minutes!")

suggest that in too many households, the need of people for an evening meal has become a perpetual emergency."

"Manna was not, perhaps, the most exciting thing the people of Israel had ever eaten (indeed, there came a point at which they complained bitterly about it), but it was palatable and it was predictable...

We too need to meet the predictable hunger of our households with a predictable provision of food.

The food doesn't have to be fancy, necessarily, or even particularly varied. 

But it needs to be there, in the cupboard or the refrigerator,

so that when mealtime rolls around, 

what ensues is not panic but dinner." (page 107-108).

That is just one of the tidbits from this wonderful book.
Just a while ago, after a rough morning,

housework did not seem like littany to me--

until I thought about this book.

And it gave me the incentive I needed to head to the garage to the potato bin

and to the fridge for the eggs and celery,

to start potato salad for Sunday picnic after church tomorrow. 

Somehow, after reading parts of this book now and then,

it gave what can seem like drudgery a sense of true value and worth.

When there is so much to do that you have a hard time even remembering to take your vitamins-

it's hard to feel like everything you are doing has value.

You'd love to ditch some of it!

But thank You, Lord!

You know when our loads are very heavy and when the many thankless tasks seem overwhelming.

Thank You for this little book and the value it places

on simple housework regularly and cheerfully done.