Mugs and Musings: Having a Martha Home the Mary Way

I forgot to grab a mug when I took this pic. So just use your imagination and pretend there's a tea cup in my hand. And meet our current foster kittens! Huey (all orange cat front and center), Dewey (behind him), Louie (climbing the couch), and Daisy (tabby). Donald is not pictured.

I picked up Having a Martha Home the Mary Way at the library yesterday. I actually went to that section for another book, but saw this one and had to grab it. It looked interesting and I love the concept--keeping a tidy home (Martha) but making room for God first (Mary).

Here's the thing--I'm naturally not a type-A, keep everything in order type of person. I'm more of the creative, I'll clean it up later, and then later ends up being later than it should type of person. 

Basically, my house is not perfectly clean. Like, ever. I try. I really do. But then I feel not good enough when I look around at the house I swept YESTERDAY and there is cat fur and litter all over the place, dishes in the sink, and you can't even see the settee in my office because it's under a pile of pillows and clothes that need to be ironed. And it frustrates me that a messy house frustrates me so much, because I don't want to spend my life cleaning cleaning cleaning. It would be my worst nightmare for the person speaking at my funeral to say, "She always had a clean house." Because if my house is always clean, it means I wasn't doing enough creating, entertaining, living.

Today as I read Day 1, the author talks about women being life-givers. Now, this is not a term I've ever used for myself. I feel like that's a term to be used for birth-mothers, and as we are planning to adopt, it's a term I never thought would apply to me. But the definition she gives to life-giving is elevating life above the mundane. And that, I feel like I'm good at. I love to find beauty in the everyday, and if I can't find it, I want to create it. I believe food should be eaten off the fancy china, favorite clothes should be worn just because, flowers don't have to be bought for a reason, and reading outdoors is time better spent than scrubbing baseboards. 

One of the things I pray often is that my home is a place of peace. For me, for my family, for anyone who stops by. I don't want to be so worried about the state of my home that I can't enjoy having a friend over or take time to enjoy making something. 

I think it's about balance and grace. I love that this book also doubles as a devotion--first, we put God first! Then we clean the house. And on the days when it's not perfect, we must give ourselves grace, just as God gives us grace when we come to Him unclean. He doesn't think we're any less than on those days. He welcomes us as we are, clean or dirty. 

Anyways, this wound up rambly (which is exactly the point of Mugs and Musings, if I'm being honest), but I'm excited to be doing this 30-day journey. That being said, we will have a 5-year-old visitor in a few weeks, so I may put it on hold during that time so I can enjoy spending time with my nephew. But I know I can give myself grace and pick it back up afterwards!

Also, I went ahead and bought this book because there are so many good parts I want to underline! So the library will have its copy back next week and I will have my very own copy to write in and underline to my heart's content!