For All The Dear Women in my Life--This quote is for you!

One of my favorite authors is G.K. Chesterton. I love his wit, his wisdom, his knowledge, his faith (did you know he was a convert to catholicism??), his dry humor, and his plays on words.

Anyway, I found this cool quote by him today and thought I'd post it to all of the dear women in my life. It spoke to me in a moment of feeling overwhelmed with all of my many and varied duties (paragraph breaks added by me for ease of reading):

"...I cannot, with the utmost energy of imagination, conceive what they mean. When domesticity, for instance, is called drudgery...the difficulty arises from a double meaning in the word. If drudgery only means dreadfully hard work, I admit the woman drudges in the home--as a man might drudge at the Cathedral of Amiens or drudge behind a gun at Trafalgar.

But if it means that the hard work is more heavy because it is trifling, colorless and of small import to the soul, then, as I say, I give it up; I do not know what the words mean. To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors, and holidays; to be Whitely within a certain area, providing toys, books, cakes, and boots; to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene, I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it.

How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one own's children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No, a woman's function is laborious; but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness."

----G. K. Chesterton, from his book, "What's Wrong with the World"

YOU GO, GIRLS!!! YOU ARE MADE IN GOD'S IMAGE!!

YOU ROCK!!!

Bobette the Builder

I read a post today describing motherhood (but we can substitute parenthood for you males) analagous to building a great cathedral. It talks about the strenuous, rewarding, vision-casting, perseverance-testing, seemingly endless and repetitive job of raising children. The article said there are four similarities:

1. No one can say who built the great cathedrals—we have no record of their names.
2. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished.
3. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.
4. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

I love analogies. But I had two reactions to this one. The first--irritability.....because:

1. I want my name known.
2. I want to see the influence and impact of my actions.
3. I want credit.
4. I want others' eyes to see my building--not just God's eyes.

O.k. So I'm not proud of those, even though I am prideful. Hmmmph. But there is hope for me. My second set of reactions (albeit more slow to come around than the first.....work on that, God, 'k?) are thus:

1. As long as the job is finished and my boys come to know Him, my name can be mud.
2. I will see it finished one day.....God willing!!! (in heaven!)
3. I can do sacrifice, and without credit. I'm getting better! God's brought me a long way! and there are days when the realist in me knows absolutely that "there by the grace of God go I," and by nothing of my own effort whatsoever.
4. Knowing God's eyes see everything helps me persevere in the building.

Build on, construction workers, build on!!

Not wise or exciting

I almost didn't post today. I'm not feeling particularly wise. Well, I really never feel wise. Maybe what I mean to say is I don't feel I have anything particularly interesting to post. I didn't encounter any interesting strangers, or have any huge epiphanies.

I guess today is what you'd call a mundane day. I don't mean boring--I mean mundane. I know there is a difference because I looked it up in the dictionary! mun.dane adj. Typical of or concerned with the ordinary.

I had prayertime. I emptied and reloaded the dishwasher. I did 4 loads of laundry. I scrubbed my mudroom. I poked on the computer. I cared for 3 children besides my own. I went to the library and the post office. I made pork chops for dinner. I cleaned up the kitchen. I told my dog to "shut up" when she wouldn't stop barking. I exercised tonight.

It was a typical day, and I was concerned with all of my duties, so it fits the definition!

But I feel good about my day. I feel like I served God even in my mundaneness (which it seems 80% of life really is), and fulfilled my duties without grumbling (except when I hollered at my dog).

I'm reading a book called The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur. I don't feel like describing it now--suffice it to say she is an inspiration to me by her faith. Anyhow, in the introduction to the book there is a quote that describes her:

".....who feels she never did more for God than on the day when to ignorant eyes she did nothing."

I want that to be me all of the time. But I'll settle for today for starters.