Above is a pic of my youngest daughter and me.
My Husband, My brother in Christ
Holy Privilege... or Drudgery
In Elisabeth Elliot's, The Shaping of a Christian Family she writes of finding joy in your work.
Here is the story of 3 women washing clothes:
A passerby asked each of the women what she was doing...
"Washing clothes." was the first answer."A bit of household drudgery," was the second.
"I'm mothering 3 young children who someday will fill important and useful spheres in life, and washday is a part of my grand task in caring for these souls who shall live forever."was the third.
I cannot sit here and write that I have always had such an attitude while doing "monotonous" chores. If I could rewrite, using some of Elisabeth Elliot's words, the response of mother #3, it would go something like this:
I am a wife to a man I respect, a mother to 6 children I love and I plead that I am, God-willing, doing this here laundry for the glory of God. For I long to see it not as drudgery, but as a grand task and holy privilege, ordained by God.
The richest heritage I can leave my children is a Godly example.
SO HOW DO I DO LAUNDRY FOR SIX CHILDREN:
I have color-coded my baskets for each group of "persons" with colored sticky dots that I have put on the handles of the white baskets. I have also labeled each basket with an indelible pen. This allows my small children to not only learn their colors, but also "play the sorting game."
Mind you, that does not work when they get old enough to learn that it isn't a game, but by then they have learned responsibilty for the care of their own laundry.
For example:
1. My older boys share a room. Their basket is labeled "Boys" with a red dot.
2. The twins share a room. Their basket is labeled "Twins" with a yellow dot.
3. The girls share a room. Their basket is labeled "Girls with a pink dot.
4. My husband has his own basket labeled "Dad" with a blue dot.
5. And mine is labeled "mom" without a dot. (I ran out of colors)
When we first learned how to sort laundry, I would tell them by color, which basket to put that particular item of clothing in. Now they have the colors memorized and some are reading, so I drop a huge pile on the floor and they sort them quite well on their own. (I have 4 pre-schoolers that LOVE to do this... I have video taped them telling me how much fun it is, so when it isn't so much fun anymore, I can get out the nifty recording and haunt them with it.)
When all of the laundry is clean and sorted, they put it away. They know where everything goes, so my assistance is becoming less and less.
Do they put it away perfectly?
About as perfectly as they make their bed and fold towels.
Does it really matter?
No.
They did it themselves for the most part and I try not to go back and "fix" what they have worked hard at doing...
Comments
Sounds to me like you have a very selfless attitude towards your family. Your heart's desire is to leave a godly example for your kids, instill a good worth ethic in them and all for God's glory. Nicely done.
Posted by: Mike Ratliff | April 5, 2006 07:49 PM
I wish I could claim to do this perfectly, Mike R., but I cannot make such a claim. I have more moments than I would like to admit, when I fail to see this as the privilege that it is. Especially when the MS flairs. But for the grace of God, He is so good... so good to me. To teach me through His precious Word and to provide Godly women like my mother-in-law as an example. My mother left when I was 6. As I have written in my personal testimony, my father raised 2 girls and my older brother on his own for several years. He is now married to a wonderful Christian woman that loves my dad and takes good care of him.
My dear mother. I love her. She needs prayer. She prefers that I call her by her name for she wants me to be her friend and does not feel she has ever been my mother. But she is and I cannot give up hope that the Lord will transform her life like He did so to mine. I pray I never give up hope. I so long to see her in heaven... my sister also.
I am blessed to have a Christian brother and earthly father and to be married to a Godly man.
Posted by: 4ever4given | April 5, 2006 08:15 PM
That song, "Count your Blessings" kept coming to mind as I read your comment. ;-)
One of the things those who are growing in Christ stumble on early on in the process is expecting circumstances to match their close walk with Christ. Pardon my Oklahoma grammer--Ain't gonna' happen! The closer we get to Christ the more cutting and purifying God does in our Hearts (John 15). That means circumstances get even more dreary or more horrible so that we will rely more and more on Him for our fulfullment rather than circumstances.
Posted by: Mike Ratliff | April 5, 2006 09:31 PM
Letting them do it on their own is one of the hardest things we must do as parents, isn't it? They never seem to do it like we would! I remember when our first child was small. I would put her down for her nap and then go downstairs to put her toys away very neatly, like I liked it done. I knew where every single piece to every single toy was. Wasn't that a great accomplishment?!! Not. Today she still struggles with being able to clean her own messes up, and I must take a great deal of credit for that problem.
I have at least learned from those mistakes, thankfully. Well, to a degree at least. Our kids do all of the housework (including their laundry) and I supervise and organize them.
I wonder what it is like for God when He lets us do things on our own? Wow, I sure mess up a lot of those things, that is for sure! If my life were one big basket of laundry, I doubt that I would fold much of it correctly or put many of the items in the right place... Thank you, God, for your grace and mercy in my life!
Blessings
Sheshe
Posted by: sheshe | April 6, 2006 03:50 PM