# An Ordered Life SISTER TO SISTER Language: en Author: by Sheryl Zeiset Lebanon, PA Original issue: The Heartbeat of The Remnant, Autumn 2023, Number 3 Source pages: 22–24 Read article: Original PDF: Autumn\-2023\-Remnant\_for\-the\-web\.pdf [The Heartbeat of The Remnant, Autumn 2023]() ![An open Bible beside a cup of coffee and autumn leaves]() > The way you keep your house, the way you organize your time, the care you take in personal appearance, the things you spend your money on, all speak loudly about what you believe\. The beauty of God’s peace shines out of an ordered life\. A disordered life speaks loudly of disorder in the soul\. –Elisabeth Elliot I’ve read some feisty disagreements to this quote\. How can we judge the state of a woman’s heart and soul by the state of her house? We can argue that visiting the sick, rocking your little ones, and having time to listen to the woes of another are infinitely more important than an orderly house\. After all, Jesus applauded Mary *\(…and \[she\] hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her\. –Luke 10:42\)* for sitting at His feet, instead of flustering around like Martha\. I think Elisabeth Elliot would agree\. But she also knew that having the clarity of mind to visit the sick and reach out to others usually comes from a woman who has her life in order\. Elisabeth had unusually disciplined parents\.1 Her father always had his papers, books, and pencils arranged one certain way on his desk, his sharpened pencils all pointing the same direction\. As a child, she delighted in messing it up slightly when she dusted his desk, just to watch his chagrin\. Everything from the time of getting out of bed, to brushing teeth, and doing homework was done on a schedule\. Over the years, whenever she would describe her childhood, some would react negatively, thankful that they weren’t raised in such a stringent environment\. Elisabeth always disagreed with their pushback\. Her experience was that their well\-managed days left more time and energy for play, laughter, and the things that mattered\. I was raised in a family where cleanliness was considered nearly as important as godliness\. We had daily, weekly, and bi\-annual routines of keeping our house clean\. These routines included sweeping and straightening the main rooms of the house every day\. Dusting, mopping, scrubbing bathrooms, and washing sheets happened on Fridays\. And we tore the whole house apart in the spring and fall, cleaning out closets and drawers, washing walls, sorting, throwing out, and organizing till every room was in fastidious order\. We loved to find new ways to arrange the furniture to give each room a fresh, new appeal\. My dad would patiently endure, even joking on one occasion that he almost crawled into a dresser drawer to sleep, as he couldn’t find the bed\. We would laugh, undeterred, intoxicated with the delight of throwing away bags of trash, of the lines upon lines of clean bedding flapping in the wind, and the ultimate reward of a clean house\. By the time my six sisters and I got married and started homes of our own, these routines were so well established that we didn’t consider any other way of keeping house\. We had a lot to learn about other—perhaps more balanced—ways of doing things\. As teenagers, we girls started working in other homes as maids, helping busy moms\. During this phase of life, we learned that there are many ‘right’ ways to keep house\. I learned that it’s okay for people to have different definitions of clean\. I found that some women are queens of their kitchen, happily cooking up delectable caldrons of food, yet seemingly oblivious to their hopelessly cluttered house\. Others kept their house neatly organized but struggled to keep a regular meal schedule\. I learned that women often have different priorities in their housekeeping and each one has gifts that benefit their families\. So even though I agree with the above\-stated quote by Elisabeth Elliot, I think there is a lot of room for each woman to exercise her gifts and priorities\. I also spent years in an African village where clean was something entirely different than my earlier definition\. I learned from my neighbors that a woman is expected to sweep her courtyard every morning if she wants to be well thought of in the neighborhood\. To them it was acceptable and even expected to pile their supper dishes in a basin and wait till morning to wash them, because after all, it was dark, and who can wash dishes in the dark? Spring cleaning to my African neighbors meant hauling a special kind of mud from the river valley and spreading a fresh layer on their walls\. Even though I loved the ‘clean’ appeal of a freshly mudded wall, I didn’t know how to do it\. The difficulty of hauling heavy buckets of mud and dealing with blistered hands made it nearly impossible for me to live up to their standard unless I wanted to pay one of them to do it for me\. We often compare one housewife with another or one culture with another\. But what is God’s perspective on this subject? Does our housekeeping have anything to do with godliness or is it up to each individual? Working and taking care of things was always part of God’s plan\. God spent six days creating a world of impeccable order, then on the sixth day He created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden for the purpose of tending it\. And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it –Genesis 2:15\. Adam and Eve had partnered with God to maintain this beauty and order\. He had a job for them to do and He expected them to do it faithfully and well\. Every mother of little ones knows that keeping an orderly house is not for the fainthearted\. It takes time, energy, and management we don’t always have\. Realistically, there are times when extra projects are happening, a new baby is born, or other circumstances happen which make it hard to keep order\. But having a plan in place helps to get back on track\.

Here are a few tips:

  1. Set daily and weekly goals and schedules. The best advice I’ve heard on getting your goals accomplished is: “Get up and do it.” Procrastination is our worst enemy.

  2. Remember that your habits become your children’s habits. If they have a daily chore list and do them regularly, it will become a normal part of life. By the time they are ten years old, making their beds and cleaning the bathroom on Wednesday morning will have become a habit. What can be better than a positive habit which blesses the whole family? If each child has a few of these habits, it helps a home run smoothly. Have your own set of habits, like always making your own bed before starting the day and keeping the kitchen counters clutter-free. Your children learn by watching you.

  3. Have two or three set laundry days in your week. On laundry morning (or the night before) the dirty laundry gets sorted into piles and the first load started. By evening, I like to have it all washed, dried, folded, and put away. That way I have five days out of the week that I don’t have to think about laundry. One of those ‘laundry free’ days can be scheduled for towels and bed sheets. Consider teaching your children to reuse towels or having one towel personalized for each child which only gets washed on the designated day. If you have the space, laundry can be folded right beside the washer and dryer, eliminating the need to haul baskets of unfolded laundry around.

  4. Be a prudent shopper. If you’re tempted to buy excess at yard sales, stay home. Make it a habit to buy only what you need and only if you have a plan and a place for the item. Remember that contentment at home feeds simplicity. Discontent feeds unnecessary shopping and overflowing cupboards and closets. Keep only enough clothes in your children’s drawers to make it from one laundry day to the next, plus a few for traveling. Fewer clothes mean less to keep organized. Don’t buy shampoo or toiletries just because they’re on sale if you don’t need them. Defrost your freezers once a year and keep tabs on what you have; use it instead of buying more. The less you have to keep organized, the easier your job.

  5. Make sure everything has a place to belong. If it doesn’t, find a solution or get rid of it. Your children should know where everything belongs, even the fingernail clippers. When they use a hammer or the broom or decide to build a blanket fort on a rainy afternoon, everyone should know the expectations—if you get it out, you are responsible to put it away. This takes a lot of training when the children are little, but it pays off!

  6. Own what you love. With some careful shopping in thrift stores, you can collect dishes, bedding, and décor for only a few dollars. Buy only the things you’re confident you like and that matches the things already in your cupboards (if color schemes are important to you). This takes some patience, but it’s well worth it. My rule of thumb is this: a few beautiful things I love to use and that is all I need.

  7. Put your house to sleep every evening before going to bed. Do a quick sweep of the floors, straighten couch pillows and throws, put books and toys away, make sure the kitchen table and counters are cleared and wiped. It is inspiring to wake up to a tidy house, rather than having to deal with yesterday’s clutter.

  8. Notice beauty and find ways to bring it into your home. This is not selfish or vain; it is acknowledging God’s creation and His love for beauty. This does not necessarily mean owning an up-to-date, expensive home. True beauty is simple and down to earth—a cup of tea, a few flowers gracing the table, or meals served with care and thought.

![A dark metal latch on a wooden door]() In your quest for order and beauty, remember that it is a balancing act\. We are serving the ones we love, and servants are not selfish\. It will not hurt your house to miss the weekly cleaning if there’s a neighbor needing some care, or your children are sick, or unexpected company arrives\. Having an open, hospitable attitude means welcoming people in, no matter what the state of your house\. This relaxed atmosphere will make others feel at ease\. God is intensely interested in the way we run our homes\. He is a God of order and beauty, and as we bring the same into our homes, we are partnering with Him to bring a small piece of beauty to this world of chaos\. A welcoming home, full of peace and order is pushing back the darkness and ushering in light and goodness\. Your home can be a haven of peace, a small slice of His kingdom come so others may know and see Jesus\.
  1. The Shaping of a Christian Family, Elisabeth Elliot
## Magazine citation - [An open Bible beside a cup of coffee and autumn leaves](): Photography By Laurel