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Work, Messy Homes & Complaining Kids...
"All around us we see the fruits,the evidence of work...Wherever we look, everything is the fruit of some work. If we take even the smallest sector of life, we see how progress has come through work. This very progress opens up new fields of activity. The job that we have already done makes the next one possible and makes its performance easier. The further we proceed with it, the quicker, the more skillful, fruitful and useful it becomes. We work more but we do it with greater ease."
Stephan Cardinal Wyszynski, in "All You Who Labor: Work and the Sanctification of Daily Life", New Hampshire, Sophia Institute Press, 1995, pp9-10
posted by Holly at 1:08 PM
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We look around our homes and think "What a mess!" Yet, the home does not get like that by itself. A messy home is indicative of two things - one: we have made a mess and two: we haven't cleaned it up! Nothing more and nothing less.
But Cardinal Wyszynski tells us a number of things here. Accomplishment and progress comes from work - even in the smallest sector of society - our homes! A clean and orderly home will only come with work, and if we choose to work or not to work, we live amidst the benefits or difficulties of that decision.
He also tells us something else that is very important to remember on those down days when discouragement looms - work becomes easier. To attend to our duties, and keep our homes tidy as a sign of accepting the stewardship responsibilities God has placed upon us, makes it all seem easier. Good habits are formed. Skills are acquired. Our work provides useful benefits. And all of a sudden, we feel pretty good about our homes, our accomplishments and our selves.
So too for children. They complain. They don't clean their room. Suddenly every chore seems to be too much, too hard, too distasteful.
The antidote for this, aside from the witness and model of Mummy doing her work, is to give the children 'more' work for a few weeks - to fill their days with those activities which make for accomplishment, which have meaning - helping in the garden to plant, weed, harvest, preserve and freeze food; helping to sand the kitchen cupboard doors and re-varnish them; helping to rake the lawn around the new pool and re-seed it with grass; helping to paint the front porch...
By giving our children real and meaningful work, in addition to their normal chores - while all other rewards & privledges like TV, computer and visiting are placed on hold for a bit - we show them the difference between a true sense of accomplishment vs random pleasure; between the sense of satisfaction that comes with a job well done vs mediocre attitudes which come from doing nothing useful...
So , do we as Moms findourselves with a complaining attitude? Then let us get to work and do even more than we normally would! In only a few days, we will marvel at the benefits we see in the home around us!
Are our children bored and complaining due to having little to do during summer vacation? Put them to work - clean out some closets; purge the basement; prune the hedges! The practical skills and sense of personal accomplishment will do wonders for them... and us!
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