Find refreshment for your heart, home and life
Can you imagine walking through the hedge pictured above? If it was even possible to do, you couldn’t do it without coming out injured! Proverbs 15:19 says,
The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns:
but the way of the righteous is made plain.
In other words, the way the lazy person takes is a hard path; he makes things more difficult by his slothfulness. How so?
This week I started the Maytag, Messes and Meals series here on my blog. Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I go about my responsibilities and work at having a right heart while doing them. Yes, I must work at that!
To be honest, this week when I attacked our PILE of dirty clothes after being gone for nearly a week, I started to moan inwardly. Then the Spirit of God brought to my mind how thankful I could be that I was now home and able to do laundry. Oh, that changed my attitude!!
There are simple methods we can employ to make all the work we do in the home sweeter and even easier. I’ve tried to be mindful this week about what those strategies are. Here’s my list that is truly helpful to me. I hope it helps you, too!
Continue reading “Easing Household Chores: 8 Strategies for a Better Attitude”(You can listen to this post on my podcast.)
You sleepily turn off the alarm and stumble to get your morning coffee. Entering the kitchen, you are greeted by the dishes that are sitting in cold water in the sink, like sunken ships at sea. Also drumming its fingers in need of attention is the pile of laundry that is tumbling out of the bottomless pit hamper. You wonder if you’ll ever get caught up on everything that needs to be done. Housework. Isn’t it just a drudgery that we have to plug through each hour, each day and each week? From the floors to dishes to laundry, there’s always something calling for our attention. While it can be overwhelming, having a biblical attitude about it can truly change not only how we approach it, but it could also enable us to accomplish more. Does the Lord care or have anything to say about the way we work in our home? Oh, yes, and it’s so encouraging and can be a game-changer if we apply His Truth to those responsibilities.
Continue reading “A Biblical Attitude Towards Housework”
Every minute we have is a gift from God, therefore, how we use those minutes should be thoughtful and wise.
So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Psalm 90:12
Often I will find myself with a short period of time on my hands and I wonder to myself,
What should I do?
Our default (or at least mine is) is to pull out your phone and check things like e-mail, messages, Instagram or Pinterest. I get so frustrated at myself for wasting time!! It is my choice how I will spend it. I stop short and realize there are other more productive and fulfilling things I could do.
There are so many activities, hobbies or chores that only take a few minutes to accomplish, and so I’ve set my mind to make a list and then I made it a note on my phone, so that the next time I find I have a little free time, I can go right to the list and get something productive done.
Here are some of the items on my list…then a translation for how this could work for you!
Look at what just a few minutes did for my dressing table drawer…
My husband reminds me all the time that I don’t always have to be doing something productive, but lots of those things on my list are not laborious. They’re easy and fast, and will ultimately make another task easier when it’s time to do it. It takes account of the warning in Proverbs 24 ~
A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to rest;
So shall your poverty come like a prowler,
And your need like an armed man.
What do you do when you have a few minutes on your hands?
Refresh yourself in a Bible-preaching church this weekend. You need them and they need you! I say that every Friday, don’t I? It’s on purpose!
(The series in Adorned will resume in July)
I’m not a professional gardener, but I absolutely love having flowers, plants and herbs growing in my yard. I enjoy going out each day to water, clip and prune as necessary. Lately, however, it seems the thing I spend most of my time doing is weeding. There is a weed that is growing in my front flower bed that has a long vine, so when I go to pull it up I get a foot of vine and roots. If I’m not home to weed for a couple of days that weed goes crazy and pops its little head up everywhere!
This morning as I was reading Proverbs 24 I thought of my garden when I read verses 30 and 31 – “I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall there was broken down.” I wonder if this man’s weed was what’s growing in my yard? It has the same ability – it could completely cover up everything in a matter of time, and break down a stone wall. But why was it allowed? The beginning of the verse tells us the reason – the gardener was lazy. I wonder where he was and what he was doing all the while the weeds were taking over his beautiful garden with the stone wall? I also have to ask myself why things get put off in my world? Why are things left undone? Oh, I could come up with all kinds of good excuses:
As I continued to read this passage it seems that the writer of this chapter was also wondering as he passed by this forsaken garden how this could have happened. It says in verse 32 – “Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.”
The destruction didn’t happen overnight. It happened slowly, just like when a person travels on foot makes slow progress. This lazy person prefers sleep. He wakes up, then rolls back over for another little nap. Instead of working he indulges himself in snoozing.
Laziness isn’t just seen in our gardens. It can be seen by:
neglect of meal preparation – waiting until everyone is starved to begin trying to find something to eat.
The piles of laundry that need to be washed, folded or ironed.
The mounds of junk mail stacked on the counter or desk that need attention.
The lesson waiting to be studied.
The children in need of love, attention and teaching are loud voices of our drowsiness.
The stacked up dishes, splattered mirrors, dusty furniture, cluttered closets, and unorganized cabinets are all like the broken down wall in the garden as they tell all that pass by that we are apathetic.
In trying to control my weed problem out front, I did some research and read this statement:
“Weeds are simply plants that are growing in the wrong place.”
When we neglect the things we should be busy about doing each day, we’re growing in the wrong place, too. Some of those “wrong places” could be – spending too much time at the Internet (it’s sure easy to do!), running around town more than necessary, being away too often just for the sake of going to have fun, or too much time on our phone. While we’re doing those things the weeds are taking over.
The article I read went on to say, Weeding is a very ‘low-tech’ job, the only tools required are a hand fork, a garden fork for larger specimens, and a bucket to collect the debris. Luxury extras are a kneeling pad and a pair of gloves. The tools we need to reign in laziness are also simple – godly discipline and elbow grease!
One prayer I pray often is, “Lord, establish the work of my hands today.” (Psalm 90:17) I need the Lord to help me keep focused and use my time wisely. I could easily waste a day on unnecessary things, things that would let the weeds grow like crazy while I was completely oblivious.
What are some things that you know the Lord would pleased you accomplish today? Don’t let the weeds take over and break down your walls!
RefreshHer 