This morning I wish us all a new heart for loving the exact life we are in.
The here and now is all we have. We can resolve to make things better. We can change the things we aren't happy with… maybe.
It's a big act of faith to be willing to put more energy into the here and now that we are living. Our reality.
Want to change the world?
Love your home. Keep your home.
Make a start. Clean your room. As you do, think about what it represents. If you are married, your room represents the “the unity of the two,” as John Paul II called the couple. Love it. Refurbish it. Make it the best it can be right now, with what you have, with what you can make of it today.
Make it an act of love for your husband, that man who claims not to really care what his room looks like, who leaves it up to you, who, yes, throws his messy things in the corner (or, in the case of my man, overlooks my things piled on the chair).
If you are not married, respect yourself enough to put even your hidden place that hardly anyone else sees into order.
This is where you put your head at night, not knowing (as we all do not know) whether you will open your eyes in the morning. If nothing else, think of what you want them to see when they come to search for your body!!
On that note, I will encourage you to join us tomorrow for the Bedroom Edition of {pretty, happy, funny, real}.
If you work all week, you have until Sunday to upload your photo.
Doesn't have to be a before/after if you forgot to record things. Just give us one nice “after,” even of one corner or horizontal surface that you conquered!
You don't even need a blog! Just link to the URL of your photo on Flickr, Picasa, or whatever service you use.
See you soon!
KaraAP says
Well, I was motivated when I read your last post about tackling the bedroom but when you remind me that people will see it when I'm dead….it takes on another level of urgency!!
I really appreciate your focus on making the room a representation of your marriage. Too often in my home, it's where we dump all of the things we aren't quite sure what to do with. I have a 4 month old and all those “just starting to fit”, “might fit tomorrow”, “hoping it might fit someday” clothes are piled up in our room and even when the rest of the house looks good, I still know that all that stuff is in there an needs to be to be dealt with. Thanks for the motivation and the reminder to be a blessing to my husband in this way! I'm working on it today!
katiebrigid says
This is so encouraging to me right now! We are expect our third baby in sometime around Christmas and I have been feeling a little discouraged as I see our house in that constant state of purging, rearranging with lots of mismatched furniture…I needed to remember that the care I put into it is what counts right now. There will be a time for every room to have its distinct purpose and set amount of bodies/furniture but that time is not now and how very blessed our family is to be adding to the holy chaos 🙂 Thanks, Leila!!
Betsy M says
Thanks Leila. Good words of encouragement on a day that I really need them. God Bless.
Woman of the House says
“Want to change the world? Love your home. Keep your home.” This is so true! The material here-and-now does matter. I can't make much of a difference in the lives of people far away, but I can for those closest to me. It begins at home.
Lori says
No matter what is happening in the larger world, the largest PART of mine and my loved one's lives happens here in our home. And, it's the place where I have the largest measure of ability to make a difference. Just *clean* makes the biggest difference, then a touch of beauty if I can mange it, but most of all love in all the doing of it.
Shannon says
Thank you, Leila.
Barbara says
“If nothing else, think of what you want them to see when they come to search for your body!!”
You have no idea (actually you obviously do) how much the thought of paramedics in my bedroom, or worse — my mother if I die — motivate me to keep my room tidy.
amchart says
“If nothing else, think of what you want them to see when they come to search for your body!!” Oh dear! Thank you Auntie Leila for making me smile this morning.
Lydia says
Thanks for this. I have a baby coming any second now and the news of the world is too overwhelming. I think I'm learning to embrace the hidden life. It's good to be reminded I can help “fix” things by doing little things with love.
Grandma G says
“If nothing else, think of what you want them to see when they come to search for your body!!” Oh, my! What a great laugh that brought! Thank you! And thank you for the incentive to GET AT IT, as I'm knowing I need to but having a terrible time getting started. I shall be giggling as I work on cleaning that bedroom… today!! 🙂
Jamie says
Ok. I was up with my new voters last night and we made it an event to start off their voting lives. So, this morning I find myself thinking, “What's the use? Why tell my children about our Founding Fathers and the Constitution? They look like Noble Old-Fashioned Relics. Why teach them to work hard when, hey, let's just put our hands out and it will get filled?” I believe this is what you are speaking to when you encourage us to clean our rooms. It will give us purpose. And when we conquer our bedroom, we move on to other rooms. And this will give us time to pray as we do this for our country. And to pray for courage to keep teaching our children Biblical truths. And that we must stand firm in these Truths despite what goes on around us. The Bible is not an old relic. Dust off our Bible that's sitting on our nightstand, right? And read it? And the essays and autobiographies and letters and papers of our Founding Fathers. Right? That our sitting dusty on our bookshelves?
I better stop here because there are some things I need to put away and see to in my bedroom. Thank you, Leila.
Rachel says
Jamie, I just want to tell you how much I loved this comment. I wish there was a place for Noble Old-Fashioned Relics (aka Conservatives) to go, blog, share their ideas and, as parents, share the struggle of bringing up their children as conservatives in a liberal world!
lauren says
I also think that there was a deeper meaning here that truly encouraged me today. Didn't Mother Teresa say, “Go home and love your family!” Love your post today, Leila.
Lauren says
Thank you! What a lovely comment!
Carol says
Thank you! I too needed to hear this. We need to encourage one another more than ever in these times. Help each other to hold fast! God Bless!
Lisa G. says
Thanks for the attempt at encouragement after such a disappointing Election Day. All your posts are a great encouragement!
Shelly says
Our bedroom is an 8 x 8 room with no closet, we've given the real bedrooms to the children/blessings who are overflowing our tiny home. Every time I go into our bedroom, it makes me sad. The very least I can do is clean it. Change the sheets, vacuum. He won't let me paint or put out a new quilt, but I can dust. Perhaps if he lays his head on a clean pillowcase, he will find rest. The rest of the house is clean, orderly, thanks to you Leila.
_Leila says
Shelly, I hope you share a picture. And I hope when things are as orderly as you can make them, you can convince the hubster to let you paint — it won't take long. Or at least the new quilt. We only have the here and now!
Kari says
This is exactly what I needed today. My own scattered thoughts led me to the same conclusion: the best thing I can do is to be the best wife and mother I can be, and part of that is modeling the dignity of housework and making the home a special place. Building the family is the only solution, and it starts with one small step. Thank you for giving some direction and a starting point (and peace) to my swirling mind.
Rachel says
Thank you Leila, SO much for these words that bring tears to my eyes. I woke up feeling disjointed and wondering how we as a country are going to survive–but I remembered that there have been dark times in our past before and that we have somehow carried on and gotten through them. There will always be storms to weather and I'm finding now that my neglected faith is calling to me and I'm finding comfort in talking to God and turning to Him with my questions.
You are the one blogger that I read that isn't whooping it up today and crowing about “success”. Thank you.
allie says
Last night just felt so sad to me. In the end what we really have control of is OUR house, the messages in it, how we RAISE our kids. What my kids see as a wife and a mother is all I really have control over (and sometimes not even that). If everyone just took care of their own to make those in their small world the best people they could be….. well you get it.
Thanks.
Donna L. says
Hi Auntie Leila,
Thank you for reminding us about what matters most, and challenging us to see to it!
Most of my family last night was in tears and anger over the election. I was running a few late errands, and came back to my family, discouraged and sad. I said, “well, *God* is still God! He knew this was going to happen before we did. I have heard that he sometimes allows bad/evil to occur so that a greater good can come through it. What prayer can we do together?”
I am happy to have an “assignment” so I can *DO* something with all of this frenetic energy….praying is good, and really, the best thing I can do now. But when I feel helpless, as some of the other poster wrote, with concern about Founding Fathers and our country at large, I find that if I work on something small, that gives a postive impact on my husband and family, I just feel better, and productive.
Thank you for keeping us focused…I appreciate you!
God bless, and have mercy on, America!
Kelsey says
Thank you, Leila. In all of this, I have been reminded of a quote from Russell Kirk: “The best way to rear up a new generation of friends of the Permanent Things is to beget children, and read to them o' evenings, and teach them what is worthy of praise.”
You help us all to do this. Thank you.
wendy says
Thanks for the motivation to clean my room! It's been on my list of things to do all week… I read your post, and jumped right up and got to work – bedside tables = de-junkified and dusted, dresser = de-laundrified and dusted, floor = swept and mopped, thrift store items = bagged for donation! And I even ran outside and cut some pretty prairie grass and lavender to put in a jar to pretty up the room. Yay! Tomorrow I will tackle the closet and dresser drawers. I struggle with my sense of worth as “just” a mom – I love how encouraging your writing is – it feels like you are writing just to me!
Ann says
I may be misunderstanding the thread of this post, but how sad that a commentator can't paint her bedroom or put out a new quilt because he won't “let” her! what on earth is going here? That's no life.
Ann
_Leila says
Ann, it does sound odd. I took it to mean that the poor man is feeling defeated by the situation and thinks it's not worth it to spruce things up. Sometimes in a comment the meaning isn't clear! Maybe there isn't anything more than that going on, and I certainly relate to it, because I have that tendency — “Why bother, things aren't the way I would like them to be, so it's not worth the effort.”
When *I* get that way, the cure is indeed to make an attempt to clean things up, and then have a little faith and go for the can of paint.
In any case, my job is to encourage 🙂
Brenda says
Wow. I can't believe how timely this post is! I was in a post-election funk, you could say….not really depressed, but definitely out-of-sorts. I knew I had to do something constructive or go crazy! I decided on the former. I put on nicer clothes, did my makeup, brushed my hair extra good (makes the scalp all nice & tingly!), & got to work with a number of projects: out came the broom & mop, the vacuum cleaner, & a few other helpers. I gave our music room a good going over, prepped the floor for putting the rug back down for the winter months, & generally tidied up in there. Later in the afternoon, I lit a couple of candles, & got busy making the supper, including a nice dessert. I loved what you said: “Want to change the world? Love you home. Keep your home.” That is beautiful, Leila, it really is. And although I do keep after things around here on a regular basis, the work I did yesterday had special meaning, special importance for me. And I feel blessed that I have the privilege to have work that makes me feel somewhat normal in awkward & tough circumstances.
Bless you for publishishing such a thoughtful post!