A Bundle of Myrrh

Okay, so the title of this post is a little misleading. I do not pretend to be giving OTHERS lessons in homemaking (at least not for FREE!). This is a series of posts for me mostly and hopefully you won’t mind reading too. If not for just a laugh then maybe to get some of you to share what you have learned as a homemaker with me!

Homemaking seems to be a process of trial and error, changing and adapting and hopefully of growing as a mother and wife. It’s a vocation I take very seriously. As Martin Luther said, homemaking is a golden and noble work.

“A wife too should regard her duties in the same light, as she suckles the child, rocks and bathes it, and cares for it in other ways; and as she busies herself with other duties and renders help and obedience to her husband. These are truly golden and noble works.”

I’m continually looking for ways to better my “systems” to make things go smoother, to simplify and to eliminate as much chaos as I can in my day. So I thought I’d write down which methods I’m trying right now in order to remember them, review them and see what is working or what isn’t and maybe to find something new for whatever isn’t. I’ll start by looking at the fun part of my day, chores!

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“A wife too should regard her duties in the same light, as she suckles the child, rocks and bathes it, and cares for it in other ways; and as she busies herself with other duties and renders help and obedience to her husband. These are truly golden and noble works. This is also how to comfort and encourage a woman in the pangs of childbirth, not by repeating St Margaret legends and other silly old wives’ tales but by speaking thus, “Dear Grete, remember that you are a woman, and that this work of God in you is pleasing to him. Trust joyfully in his will, and let him have his way with you. Work with all your might to bring forth the child. Should it mean your death, then depart happily, for you will die in a noble deed and in subservience to God. If you were not a woman you should now wish to be one for the sake of this very work alone, that you might thus gloriously suffer and even die in the performance of God’s work and will. For here you have the word of God, who so created you and implanted within you this extremity.” Tell me, is not this indeed (as Solomon says [Prov. 18:22]) “to obtain favour from the Lord,” even in the midst of such extremity?

Now you tell me, when a father goes ahead and washes diapers or performs some other mean task for his child, and someone ridicules him as an effeminate fool, though that father is acting in the spirit just described and in Christian faith, my dear fellow you tell me, which of the two is most keenly ridiculing the other? God, with all his angels and creatures, is smiling, not because that father is washing diapers, but because he is doing so in Christian faith. Those who sneer at him and see only the task but not the faith are ridiculing God with all his creatures, as the biggest fool on earth. Indeed, they are only ridiculing themselves; with all their cleverness they are nothing but devil’s fools.”

-Martin Luther from The Estate of Marriage 1522

Today I realized the importance of being prepared to host a guest at any minute. We had someone stop by who is in town for the night with no plan on where they will stay. Phil offered one of our extra rooms. I’m glad we have the space and happy to help someone out when they need it. It also made me relieved to know that one of our guest rooms was presentable and with a little arranging, ready for company. It got me thinking that it would be nice to always have little things on hand to make our home in situations like this not just somewhere to “crash” but a pleasant experience for a guest last minute or not.

Some ideas I had are:

*Clean towels and washcloth of course

*Soaps, lotions, shampoos for their use

*An alarm clock with the correct time!

*Extra pillows and blankets

I like to have what my family calls “pillow treats” for company that I’ve been able to plan for but in cases like this I guess I have to do without. And wouldn’t fresh flowers and fruit be nice to leave out, but how often do I have that? Oh well.

Anyone have any other ideas? I’d love to hear them!