Priority Checkpoint

Discovering what is best for our own family is the way to keeping our home life on an even keel. Our parenting and homemaking goals will vary as widely as the paths we’ll need to take to reach those goals, but one way to get a sense of direction is to make a list. If...I’ve learned anything from my husband it is this little golden nugget: if it needs to be done, write it down! Early in this series I mentioned making a list of goals, those things we deem important in running our households. Sometimes it is helpful to get the big picture in view. Is your main objective to have a clean house or to raise children? Is it to be able to contact Martha Stewart for a spot on her show or is it to have a reasonably clean, welcoming atmosphere for your family. When you have a clear big picture, then you can get down to the nitty-gritty details. Ask yourself first what matters to you regarding your everyday expectations and make a second list in addition to your goal list.

This is a priority checkpoint. Be honest with yourself as you prioritize your activities. A meticulously clean floor may have to take a back seat to your child’s paper mache volcano project. If I write down each day’s events (that list thing again), I am assured of at least attempting to get first things done first. Sometimes we struggle unnecessarily so and spend our days in frustration and chaos instead of peace, harmony and satisfaction, knowing we did what was most needful. Help is only a prayer away, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not (doesn’t hold back); and it shall be given him.” And one of my all time favorite verses in the Bible, Jeremiah 33:3, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” Being a mom could be so much easier …if we’d only ask for help.

Here’s an excerpt from the book Celebrate Home written by Angie Peters, that I thought I’d share with you today:

Housework isn’t really that important…Oh, yes it is – to an extent! Chances are that domestic order somehow figured into the picture if not at the top, at least in your “top 10” goals penned earlier. Why is it so important?

You may want to make you home a clear contrast to the hectic, messy, and disorganized world beyond your driveway. You want clean floors (if for no other reason than because your toddler would just as soon eat off the floor as off of china plates.) And although your walls may sport a cute plaque with a homey rhyme about excusing messes while you rock your baby, you wonder how comfortable your guests would really feel if they were to crunch crumbs from last night’s dinner as they walked across the kitchen floor.

In addition, you may find it difficult to imagine that the ideal woman, whose portrait is painted in Proverbs and whose standard we strive toward, had a basin full of dirty pottery, overflowing garbage baskets, or less-than-fresh straw in her family’s bedding.

Although we do need to clean our homes, we need more urgently to rock our kids while they’re still rock-able, to tell stories to our kids while they want to listen, and to embrace the story of Martha and Mary: We must know that to forego enjoying the blessings of the Lord’s presence in our living rooms (in our case, enjoying His presence in the hearts of our beautiful kids, in the pleasures of our home, and in the lifestyle we’ve been called to lead) to wash dishes would be to settle for second best!

Key Verse to remember: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” - Matthew 6:33. Priority number one!

Have a blessed day,

Lori