Counting my Blessings

I found myself "laboring" over a lengthy series of chores this past weekend.  I'm still short of having the entire house cleaned through once, but I have a never-ending list of things that I need to take care of on a daily basis:  laundry, cooking, dishes, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, cleaning bathrooms...etc.  Don't get me wrong; I'm taking a great deal of pride in the way the house looks now, and I am experiencing a greater level of confidence in my homemaking abilities.  It's just that I felt a little overwhelmed by the fact that these tasks are never going to end.

Then I remembered something I read a few weeks ago, suggesting a technique that will help us homemakers avoid thinking about our daily work as drudgery.  We should think of it, instead, as a blessing.

I had to clean TWO toilets.  How incredibly blessed I am that I have TWO toilets in my house!  There are millions of people in the world who have none.  There are millions more who have one, but not two.  And look at the products I have at my fingertips to keep the toilets sanitary and shining; I have no worries that my children are going to come into contact with some terrible disease because they used an unsanitary toilet.

I had to wash an entire sink full of dishes.  Wow, we have dishes!  How many people out there don't?  How many people in the world only wish that they had enough food to cook and serve on dishes in the first place?  How many more don't have the water to clean themselves or their plates with -- or, if they do have water, had to walk three miles to get it in a bucket?

I had to clean out two bathtubs and a stand-up shower. Suddenly, that seems like an extraordinary privilege more than it does a chore.  I take a bath -- every single day -- in clean, hot, running water.  I don't have to share my tub with anyone except my own family.

When I ran the vacuum, I thought about the comfort our rug brought the family and the convenience of electricity that allowed me to do so in the first place.  When I folded my kids' clothes, I considered how fortunate they were to have beautiful, comfortable, serviceable clothes (more than they will ever need) provided by people who love them dearly.  When I swept Cheerios off the kitchen floor, I thanked God that I had two arms and two legs and the strength and health to keep my house tidy.  As I did each task, I earnestly considered the many ways in which I had been blessed.

Here's the thing:  I have heard "count your blessings" all my life, and I have done it so many times when it comes to the people and things in my life (husband, kids, friends, home, job, etc.).  But I don't think that I have ever once honestly considered how even that which I think of as hard work or an undesirable chore is still evidence of the many, many gifts in my life.  It was the strangest thing to find myself grinning and close to tears as I scrubbed toilets and floors and folded burp cloths, but it was also the most joy I've ever gotten from housework.