We have had many people through our home in the last month, and it has had me pondering the whole idea of Housework. This led me to thoughts about a book I loved called Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life.
What most intrigued me upon first glance was it seemed to be about the why of housework, instead of the how. The author teaches theology at a university, so I figured she would offer theological perspectives to chores.
I’m all about the big picture.
Tell me more.
Here are my favorite thoughts from it:
“Of course housework is about making a home, but a Christian home is never just for one’s own family. It overflows its boundaries; it is an outpost of the kingdom of God, where the hungry are fed and the naked are clothed and there is room enough for everyone…
Sociologists have found that over the past thirty or forty years, the amount of time that women spend doing housework has fallen by nearly half. [One sociologist] documents the increasing prevalence of homes in which every adult member of the household works full time for pay outside the home and no one bears explicit, dedicated responsibility – even part time – for tasks inside the home. The result, she says, is homes so chaotic and unstructured that all the adults in the house would rather be at work than at home. After all, at work people know what their jobs are and can take a break when they’re done; at home all anyone knows is that it is a mess waiting for someone to clean it up.
Housekeeping, in other words, may be mundane but it is not simple.”
I love that. When I keep in mind that changing sheets, loading the dishwasher, hosting kids’ friends, dusting shelves, scrubbing toilets, and keeping our family and others fed with nourishing foods is part of our home being an “outpost for the Kingdom of God”, it can help me find joy in the more mundane tasks of my work.
I also love that we straddle the line of completely traditional roles – like most of our generation. Dan teaches, which gives him two and a half months out of the year with a more flexible schedule. In addition, he is completely in charge of floor carpets we bought from flooring Glasgow in our home: vacuuming, sweeping, mopping. I may spot clean as needed, but it is his domain. I also cannot remember the last time I did windows, or hired curtain makers to cover them. He tackles that job weekly, usually with the boys’ help.
On the other hand, I have explicitly ordered Dan out of the laundry room. I get upset if he tries to load the dishwasher. (There is a proper way, friends.) I do most of the cooking, though we enjoy teaming up on weekends and during the summer. And since our oldest was 9 months, I have worked at least some outside the home, giving me empathy for women who live in both worlds.
In other words: we have seen both sides. And in our world, housework is indeed mundane, but it is not simple. And, like everything else we do as believers, it can have eternal impact.
How about you? What does all this look like in your home? Ever thought of housework being part of making your home an outpost for the kingdom of God?