Continuing from Joan A. Mac Donald and her book “The Holiness of Everyday Life”, Regarding “Work”:
I started with the usual “to do”. I read the the usual “how to” books—many excellent ones. I got the necessary equipment. I scheduled, I organized, plotted and planned. I read inspirational articles that reminded me of the importance of my task. I still hated housework! I was still resentful! I continued to read and talk to other women. Gradually a new understanding began to dawn. I shifted my focus away from “to do” and toward “to be”. My shift started with this scripture: “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are or good report; if there be any praise, if there be any virtue, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8; emphasis added.)
“Think on these things.” OK! While I do housework, I’ll think about virtue and praise and loveliness. You know those positive thinking books I mentioned earlier—the ones that give so many easy ways to change your viewpoint? That’s what came next. I read them all. Surely that would do the trick. I wrote affirmations and taped to my bathroom mirror. Now we’re getting somewhere! I thought. I did visualizations, picturing myself cheerfully whistling as I vacuumed an immaculate floor. I felt great while I was affirming, I felt great while I was visualizing, I felt frustrated, resentful, inadequate, and inefficient while I was cleaning! What now? Back to the scriptures! . . . Hearing ye shall hear and not understand and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. (Acts 28:26.) Was there something here I was not perceiving? I didn’t think so. All here was clutter, dirt, and hard work, right? Hmmm. The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance. (1 Samuel 16:7.)
Well there was no question that I was looking on the outward appearance. Could those scriptures be applied to the homely job of housework? It seemed unlikely. These scriptures were talking about spiritual things. Housework to me was definitely not spiritual; mundane, temporal, worldly, sometimes even dreary, but Spiritual? No, definitely not spiritual.
While I was pondering these things, I heard an interesting discussion in church. The discussion was about Joseph Smith’s assertion that all things are Spiritual. We then discussed spiritual attributes of the physical world. Some of the words were purity, order, simplicity, truth, and beauty.
Oh, my goodness, that was it! Why didn’t I see it before? (“seeing ye shall see and perceive not”)? The next time I cleaned, I looked. Sure enough, there they were (admittedly, not until I was done, but there nonetheless): purity (cleanliness), order, and beauty. Housework was not about dirt. Housework was not about clutter. Housework was not about time or work or energy or fatigue. Housework was not about who messed up or who cleaned up. And housework was definitely about me! Housework is about purity, order, and beauty.
The Apostle Paul, quoting Isaiah, wrote: “The heart of this people waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and should be converted.”(Acts 28:26.) In the sense that converted means changed, I was converted. I have never looked at housework in the same way again. Before, I looked at the work before me and saw five things: clutter, work, injustice, inadequacy and carelessness. Let’s go back over some of those things and look at them with new eyes. ~~~Joan A. Mac Donald and her book “The Holiness of Everyday Life”, Deseret Book, p.18-20 (Continued. . . .)
