Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Staying at Home

In a recent post, I mentioned how housework and childrearing were liturgical. That wasn't my insight, but Margaret Kim Peterson's. In fact, she has a book on the subject that was just released last week: Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life. I listened to an MP3 of a lecture she gave earlier this year in Florida and it was a profoundly interesting and theological view of diapers and laundry. You can download the lecture here.

(Click on "Margaret Kim Peterson," and you're good to go. The introduction is difficult to hear, but you will be able to here Mrs. Peterson's voice clearly. I was able to burn the entire lecture onto one CD and listen to it in my sweet MINI van.)

By the way, this lecture is no conservative diatribe about the necessity of the woman to be home - far from it. If you like that sort of thing, this isn't it. Sorry. This is an incredibly intelligent woman speaking from where she is - and how she finds ministry in all those monotonous chores that make us loony.

Please listen - especially if you're a House Spouse. Sometimes being at home can be a lonely place. Sometimes it can seem purposeless.

It isn't.

This work also is the work of Christ.

2 comments:

Hope said...

This post makes me think of a little book by Gunilla Norris called Being Home.

Alison Hodgson said...

It sounds great.

This is an awareness I have, but it's not always at the forefront. I am glad I learned it, in part (still getting it), while my bigger kids were quite young. In particular, I remember deciding to let diaper changing be a time where I really focused on the child and expressed my love for him or her, especially as they grew older and the diapers got nastier.

Staying home can feel so limited, so humble, but it's really a powerful place and position. I think we all know that, but standing in the truth and walking it out in the day to day is the challenge.

Paul sent me a quote of Teddy Roosevelt speaking about mothers, but it's really addressing those who care for children and is affirming. I'll post it later.

Thanks for this.