"It's a blessing to do a dish!" Is that how you feel? Probably not. So much of our life consists of the work that we must carry out to run our household. We must wash the dishes, do laundry and vacume the rug. How many diapers does a parent change? Quite a lot. There is garbage and recycling to process too. If you own a home, you must mow the lawn and pull weeds. On and on we go. There never seems to be enough hours in the day to accomplish everything on one's to do list.
Yet, what is our attitude about these chores? Do we fight over whose turn it is to take out the trash? Do we dread this part of life and just live for our next weekend adventure or vacation? Yesterday, I was having a lovely day. I had set aside some time to spend the day with a friend. We had lunch at the Local, a restaurant in Chappaqua,N.Y. Then, we were happily shopping when my cell phone rang. It was my husband telling me he got stung battling a bee's nest. He told me to call him before I attempted to come home. He needed to escort me to the front door so that I would not get stung. The hive was quite close to our front door!
My mood went from relaxed and happy to concerned and overwhelmed. "Oh boy, is he okay? He told me he was okay but like a lot of men, he won't go to the doctor unless it is absolutely necessary. Who should I call? Who do I know whose had a bee problem? Can we manage ourselves or should we call an expert? Susan* I better get home. There goes my Saturday plans." My husband was a Rock of Gibraltar while I just fell apart. What is wrong with me?
We should not ignore our attitude about everyday occurances and try to have a virtuous attitude as my husband did when the bee thing interrupted his day and weekend. He spent time and energy solving this problem with no complaints. There are implications of a bad attitude for our spouse, family, jobs and ourselves. If we dread our everyday chores, are we really living life to the fullest, or wasting a lot of time being miserable over a fact of life? Right now, marriages are being damaged because people unfairly dump the whole family work load onto their spouse.
Many of us have failed to enjoy the beauty of every moment. The gift of life and all the ordinary things that entails. The joy and the meaning of family teamwork. A job well done together brings closeness. This point was indelibly brought home to me some years ago. My mother-in-law was recuperating from cancer surgery. She was unable to preform her daily chores. In this context, I was about to wash some dishes for her. She surprised me in the kitchen. I asked her if I could get her something. She said no, but she felt up to doing the dishes. I replied, oh don't worry about it, I've got this. To which she replied, it's a blessing to do a dish!
She really meant it too. Facing death made her cherish the ordinary and embrace it with gusto as a blessing. She was always a woman who served with love but I have not always been such a woman. I pray and work hard to embrace the chores and errands of life. To roll with it when a hive of bees interrupts things or raccoons are rifling through my garbage cans. Yet, it is in these ordinary moments that, I can best showcase the Christian ethos of being "light and salt" in this world.
This morning, I got up early so that I could put a meal in the slow-cooker before going to church. I vaguely wondered if we should eat out in stead. But, the joy that I got to hear about how good that meal was that evening made me glad of the work. We don't always get the accolades we expect or deserve but remember our Heavenly Father knows and cares. We can feel happy knowing that we are doing the right thing too. I hope that this makes you embrace all the things that you are called to do this week. May God strengthened you in it.
*the names are changed.
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