Striving for excellence in your home, but resting in Him – S 2, Ep 2

Welcome back to the second episode in season 2! We are kicking off a mini series here on the podcast called The Productive Household. This series is going hand in hand with our new 12 month home economics program we are doing in My Homemaking Mentor (my online training academy for Christian women).

Last week we kicked off this discussion in the first episode about what is a productive household? And today we are back talking about an important topic: How can we strive for excellence in our homes and work hard for His Glory...while at the same time, resting in Him and finding that balance that we all need between hard work and good rest? 

Let's dive into today's episode to find out!

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I think I might ruffle a few feathers in today's discussion. Because in our world, we are often told we are doing too much, that it's totally fine if we are a "hot mess mama" and we tend to ridicule or look down on those who seem to have it all together. In fact, I think we tend to look at women who do seem to have things more together and assume they have a big hairy unscrubbed toilet secret that makes her not actually that good.

But what we want to chat about today, is the fact that God does call us to work hard. Work diligently. Be creative with that work. And throw ourselves into the task at hand. But like we talked about in the last episode, this is done not out of hustle and has to be done with our priorities in the right place.

Basing our work ethic off of God's Word and not the world

We don't have to look very long in Scripture to find verse after verse about working hard for the Lord. We were not created to just sit cross legged on the floor praying all day every day. We were created to pray and to worship the Lord and a terrific way to do that is through, hard God honoring work.

"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ." - Colossians 3:23-24

"Warning Against Idleness

6 Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, 8 nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. 9 It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. 10 For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. 11 For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.[d]" - 2 Thessalonians 3: 6-12

We also see the flip side in Scripture, that laziness is a sin and that we should not be slothful.

Deep down, I think we all know that working hard is honoring to God of course. But I think the disconnect happens when we don't connect that to scrubbing toilets, meal planning, singing Scripture songs with toddlers, and acting like a chauffer between errands and music lessons. We forget that there is good hard work in front of us everyday, even if it doesn't look like being a CEO of a large company or a missionary in Africa.

God has given us a lot of work. Right here, right now, right in front of us. And it might be very hard work, but it might also be very mundane boring work that we have a ...