How precious a thing is the [family]. Is it not worth some sacrifice in time, energy, safety, discomfort, work? Does anything come forth without work?
-Edith Schaeffer
Some books change your life. But you don’t realize it till much later.
“What is a Family?” by Edith Schaeffer is one of those for me.
Another was “Auntie” Leila’s blog. I have learned so much. I’m grateful.
Hard Work mixed with encouragement and grace has been a major theme of their writing. They remind us that it’s normal for it to take a lot of work to make a home, cook from scratch, and keep the laundry ahead of the nakedness.
I’ve needed these ladies to remind me that life will never be perfect, and that perfection shouldn’t be our goal.
We can (and should) work hard, love each other, and do special things for our family. But when the goal of ultimate perfection creeps in, it causes unhappiness and discontent.
Reading old books reminds me of how amazing it is that we have plumbing and appliances that make this a good day to be a wife and mother!
Yet somehow no matter how many “work savers” we have, the fact remains…there is a lot of work to do every day. It is my experience that the more I try to run from it, the worse it feels.
It’s only when I make myself get right into the mess and work, that things start to change. For dramatic effect we could also call it “heading into the eye of the storm”, because honestly, some days that’s what it feels like.
But those old books also remind me that we have grabbed some strange beliefs in our culture. Maybe we were sold some lies when we weren’t looking.
We’ve been told that having children is hard enough, so we shouldn’t be expected to also cook, clean, and keep things running for our hard working husbands.
We’ve been told that we “deserve a break”, and sometimes we take that to mean something it doesn’t.
We’ve been told that a clean house doesn’t really matter, that our husband should get dinner for himself, that no one knows how hard our life is, so they shouldn’t expect anything from us.
We feel entitled to a life of ease.
But I don’t see a life of ease for Christ’s followers described in the Bible anywhere. God calls us up to a different place. He says that to be great, we must be servants of all.
Being “servants of all” is such a different philosophy from a life of ease. They aren’t even really compatible.
It can be very unpopular to question these beliefs.
It’s scary to tell women that hard work can be the best thing to happen to them.
On the bad days, I have a post bookmarked for days like that. It is gentle and comforting and helps me get back up the next day and try again.
I hope this last idea gives you the comfort and peace that it’s given me.
Human beings are very unbalanced and prone to go off on tangents. In every area of life- with too great emphasis on one thing, leaving out another important thing altogether. None of us will ever be perfectly balanced in our spiritual lives, our intellectual lives, our emotional lives, our family lives, in relationships with other human beings, or in our business lives. But we are challenged to try with the help of God.
-E. Schaeffer
The Dutch Rush 