This is a message that God has been laying on my heart in recent weeks.  I love having an orderly home, but it’s always constant battle for me.  Most days, I struggle to just keep the basics done.  It’s not that it’s hard, but we have allowed so much clutter in our home that it makes it almost impossible to keep it picked up all of the time.  I have been reading a bit here & there in a book “The Power of a Praying Wife” by Stormie O’Martian. One of the things she said at the beginning of the book was that the home is the wife’s responsibility & that even housework should be done to the glory of God.  WOW!  To see it in print & to read those words really spoke to me.  I don’t mind housework.  I love doing for my husband & children, but doing housework to glorify God?  Well, that put a whole new spin on things.  I can say that it has really opened my eyes as I go about my daily chores.  I ask myself as I go about each task, “Am I doing ________ to glorify God?“  There are times that I catch myself being irritable, a grouchy momma/wife, and I have to stop & ask for forgiveness from my family & from my heavenly Father.   I’m finding that daily housework has a new meaning & I’m finding that I don’t mind is so much now.  I see it as a way to please my heavenly Father, which, in turn, brings peace to our home & gives my sweet husband a peaceful home to come home to.  Will there be days when I don’t see housework as a way to please God?  I’m sure there will be.  Will there be days when things go undone?  Absolutely.  But, the good news is I can pick up right where I am & begin again. 

She also brings up another point that God has been working on in my heart for the last several months, and that I’ve been slowly working on changing.  That’s my appearance.  I haven’t “let myself go” in the last few years, but I haven’t done much to improve myself either.  Well, one of those things has been in how I dress.  Since putting on weight 6 years ago after having ankle surgery & been being on crutches for a total of six months (total before & after surgery), I haven’t wanted to wear a dress or anything really feminine since.  Jeans, boots, & solid colored ladies cut shirts have been my wardrobe.  Well, I’m slowly working on changing that.  For Christmas, my sweet husband bought me several nice long skirts (that I had picked out back in October but put away for Christmas).  Most are denim skirts that can be worn as casual or dressy casual, but I also have a few suede skirts that are dressier.  My husband tells me I’m beautiful no matter how I’m dressed or even if I’m dirty from a hard days work on the farm.  How many women have a husband who sees her as beautiful even on her worst days? I’m really blessed beyond words.  But, this goes beyond him.  This is coming from my heavenly Father.  He wants me to dress more feminine & continue to dress modestly.  That doesn’t mean skirts all of the time, at least not right now, but it does mean that I need to pay closer attention to what I’m wearing & dress as to please Him.  If I’m pleasing my heavenly Father, then I know that I’m pleasing my sweet husband.  I’m not going to debate that pros/cons rights/wrongs of wearing skirts, but I will say with very strong conviction that women (and girls of all ages) should dress modestly.  This means that you wear shorts/skirts at least to the knee, shirts that are not low cut/form-fitting & that have sleeves, jeans/pants that are not tight/form-fitting, etc.  Our bodies should be kept as temples to our heavenly Father, they are for the eyes of our husbands ONLY, not for the men of the world to look upon & lust after.  Every day, men battle with lustful thoughts.  As women, especially Christian women, we should be doing our best to keep our fellow brothers-in-Christ from stumbling & dress modestly.  No, we cannot control their thoughts/actions, but we can do our part to not add fuel to the fire. 

I’m sure I’m going to have days where I’m really feeling in touch with God & days where I’m really struggling, but I will continue to take things a day at a time (sometimes a moment at a time) & try to do all things for the glory of God.