The Mundane


I started to panic when my deadline for this blog came up and I didn’t feel like anything “blog-worthy” had happened. I hadn’t discovered some great truth that I could neatly tie up in a bow—as if I had learned some deep lesson. I was so distressed that I even contemplated, for a brief moment, finding some ministry to participate in for a day so that I could write about it. Sad, I know.

Suzanne Lincoln and her children sword fightingThe truth is, most of my days (and yours, I imagine) are more mundane and less blog-worthy. Somehow filling up cyberspace with descriptions of hanging my laundry while a blue-headed lizard stares down at me through the razor wire hardly seems exotic. Annie Dillard said, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” This was disturbing to me at first, because I didn’t really want my life to be spent washing dishes, pasteurizing my own milk, or folding underwear. But the more I think about it, the more the mundane can be used as an offering—a pleasing aroma to the One I came to the back-side-of-nowhere to serve. My life isn’t all prayer letter material; in fact, most of it isn’t. And I’m starting to be okay with that.

Even though my mundane day-to-day––straining bees out of the honey, breaking up the tenth fight before breakfast, sword fighting or reading stories––may not be blog-worthy, when it’s tackled with grace and faithfulness, it is noteworthy to God. And that’s what matters, anyway.

3 Comments

  • Nancy says:

    I can relate so well to your words. Thank you for sharing! I am looking forward to finally meeting you at family conference!

  • Karlin Kendall says:

    So true! It does help to think of our daily duties as being a pleasing aroma to the Lord, and to make sure I’m doing them in a way that would be pleasing. 😉

  • Tammi says:

    Well said Suzanne! I feel the same way most days 🙂 A great reminder that raising our children and doing the ‘mundane’ things is what God (and our husbands) are proud of!

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