(ThySistas.com) Many of us have heard the phrase “cleanliness is next to Godliness”. It was one of the “nonbiblical” scriptures use to drive home the point that everything about us needed to be clean. Life happens in so many ways that everything around us can be thrown into disarray. Sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in a day to keep everything in order. I remember growing up with grandmothers that kept pristine houses. Everything had a place, they never went to bed with an unclean kitchen, laundry was never piled up, and they seemed to have a magical internal menu and just knew what to cook. My parents worked and I watched them tag team the house an everything had a place. They were a testament to the women that raised them. Like many women today I become a wife, a mother, and one that works. However, I found myself beating myself up because I could not seem to implement the order I grew up seeing. This can eat at your view of your own womanhood. Everyone could tell you you’re doing great…but it’s hard to believe when you’re pointing the trifling finger at yourself.
After having my son, I remember calling my mother in tears because everything was everywhere. This could mean for many of us, that life is in disarray. Have you ever noticed when the house is crazy if feels like your life is crazy? Well, sis I’m going to share a word my mother gave me in my distress: take it one room at a time. When she said it, a light went off. Far too often we measure ourselves in terms of completeness, verses progress.
Don’t get me wrong, completing tasks is important. But knowing how to acknowledge progress on the journey to completion just might be more important. Doing something as simple as making the bed helps. You might decide today I’m deep cleaning my bathroom, and folding a load of laundry. Sis, that is progress. On a different day you may organize your bedroom and fold a load of laundry. As you continue to work your days…one day you will look up and see that your space is in a state that works for you.
It is important to realize there will always be laundry to tend to, dishes to wash, and something to clean. There will days when all you can muster is making the bed or taking a shower…that is quite okay; it is still progress. Give yourself the grace you give others, and more importantly the grace you deserve. Realize you may have come up with elders in your family that had a house that ran like a Swiss clock with jobs, and multiple children. Sis consider two things: you saw it be done so you know you can do it, and they had to work towards what you saw.
Reality check, our mothers and grandmother didn’t wake up with everything together. What we would eventually see was the outcome of years of trial and error and taking it one room at a time until they had the entire house in a rhythm. That kind of magic doesn’t happen overnight, nor effortlessly. We will find our rhythm and it will be unique to us, and our space. While we work toward that time, just take it one room at a time. Everything will come together.
Staff Writer; Christian Starr
May connect with this sister over at Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/christian.pierre.9809 and also Twitter; http://twitter.com/MrzZeta.