Let me be the first to say "June Cleaver I am not." Although, truth be told, I would love to be. I could see the shock on Ryan's face now as he comes through the door promptly at 5:30 pm to me with my pearls, my Christian Louboutin heels, apron and full course meal set and hot on the table. About the only true part of that entire scenario is that I own pearls. In the event that Ryan were actually home by 5:30, ever, and giving the fact that most nights I am not even home when he arrives, hence prohibiting me from having dinner on the table.
Anyway, I am not a very good servant. I detest meal planning, grocery shopping and cooking. Overall, I am not a very good housekeeper and forget about me taking care of the yard. While I don't mind doing any of these singularly, doing them all is a bit overwhelming. I have decided that it is time to do something about it. I have not always struggled with this problem. It has only been in the past year or two.
As I was reflecting back on "yesteryear" and trying to determine what went wrong, I was remembering my very first women's Bible Study. It was the fall of 1997 and I had two kids at the time. Emily was going to a local preschool that was the envy of the town and I kept a little girl in our home to pay for the preschool. So every Tuesday I would load Emily, Savannah, and Owen into our 2 door car, drop Emily off at Preschool and go to Bible study. As I said, this was my first real case of "hanging with the girls". To be honest, I was not sure how I felt about it. I knew that staying home with Owen was the right thing to do (daycare didn't agree with his temperament)for Owen. However, I was not totally convinced it was the right thing for ME! The leader of the Bible study was an older woman (our senior pastor's mother). It was a study where anyone could join at anytime. There was no real stopping and starting point. On your very first day, you went into a separate room to make an apron. These were the Wal-mart type canvas/jean apron and there were all kinds of things to decorate them. After decorating our apron we were invited to lunch after the Bible study with the leader. She explained to us that as the nurture/care taker of our homes, she wanted us to remember that we were servants. However, she felt that young women often fell into the trap of forgetting whom we served. She felt that in the thankless job of taking care of our husbands and children that we would lose sight of it was really Christ that we serve. We strive to serve Him by serving other, especially those in our care. She encouraged us to "put on our apron" just as we "put on the full armor of God". To allow that apron to be part of our armor. I can't tell you what a difference that made to me. It was nothing like having a terrible day and you asking yourself "why am I doing this again?" but to then go and physically put that apron on and "transforming your mind". When Emily and Owen were little, they were used to seeing me in that apron. However, as time passed, I didn't put on the apron as much. In fact, I cannot even find it. So, this weekend, I went to get me a new apron. I couldn't find one I liked (who knew aprons were very hard to find) so I got one from Joanne's that you piece and sew together. I have cut out the pieces but have not sewn it all together. I am excited about my quest to be a better "homemaker". Watch out, June Cleaver, there is a new girl in town!
PS - I tried to post a picture of what my new, cute apron will look like but my picture thing is not cooperating. :(
No comments:
Post a Comment