On the Eternal Consequences of a Dirty Floor

Some days, Mondays especially, it really does seem that "A woman's work is never done." We had a really nice weekend, weather-wise and just a nice weekend at home as a family. My husband worked on digging a raised bed (Yes, in January!), Anthony ran around outside a lot, I made pot roast and apple pie for Sunday supper, and we all just relaxed a bit. And the dirt and residue from this not-much-going-on weekend is all over my kitchen floor! My kitchen must have had a wild party while we were busy watching "A Man for All Seasons." I cleaned it just on Friday. I should take photographic evidence that that floor sometimes DOES look like it! For about five minutes. But it's not just the floor. Weekend evidence is everywhere. I'm sure I'm not alone in this on Monday mornings.

My dream kitchen floor. I like the yellow shoes, too!

The world might point to Mondays for a housewife and say, "See, it's pointless. Everything you do is immediately undone." But isn't all work that way, really? My husband finishes with one set of data, and there is another waiting for him. None of us are ever truly finished working until we die. That's nothing to be depressed over; it's just the nature of things. "Ah yes, but at the end of the month, he brings home a paycheck. You're just treading water." In housework, yes absolutely. If I really were just an unpaid maid and nanny as feminism would have me believe, I would be dissatisfied. I would be happier in a job. This study seems to think that's true!

But really, I'm not a maid with no life. My work is raising souls: Anthony's and the new baby's not to mention Ryan's and my own. Housework and cooking and kissing boo-boos are all just the background for this great work of developing human beings. The work of soul-building is really the only work that does last in eternity. Every architectural wonder, every Fortune 500 company, and every Nobel Prize will one day be gone. It simply won't matter. But it will matter if I was there to teach my son not to snatch books from the little girl at the library (Sorry, Elsa!). It will matter if I discipline my spirit to uncomplainingly clean that kitchen floor yet again. I never said it was glamorous! But it is important, because all these little day-to-day things will all help make our souls into who we will be in eternity. And that's the most important thing of all.