I was really something the other night at a wedding shower. The bride was opening her lovely gifts, and one present was a muffin pan.
“You know,” I told the bride, “I use a muffin pan to cook meatloaf, because it takes half the cooking time.”
Instant fame. Apparently that was the best idea ever, and all the ladies were buzzing about it.
Please, no autographs.
Women who are doing the complex work of homemaking are always looking for ways to do that hard work in a more efficient way. Wherever women gather, the conversation almost always turns to new ways to do laundry or to keep up with the dishes or to plan meals more successfully. This kind of work, of thinking about and improving our home routines, is connected to our prayer habits, and I want to reason with you why.
Paul gives this short and seemingly impossible command:
“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17).
“Right,” says the homemaker. “Three thousand chores to do, and I’m supposed to spend the day praying?”
Hold that thought, while you look at Jesus’ words:
“… ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself'” (Luke 10:27b).
Stick with me here.
The homemaker is supposed to love the Lord her God with all of her mind, but what does she think about much of the time? Efficient systems. The homemaker is always thinking about how she is doing those 3,000 chores and how she could do them better and more efficiently. What if she offers this thinking and planning time as an expression of love to the Lord?” In this way, the mental work becomes a communication of love, and that, my friends, is prayer.
We turn chore work into a prayer, which takes the chore out of praying. (See what I did there?)
Now I want to send you to get something for free. Jami Balmet, over at Young Wife’s Guide, is offering a super short but highly valuable video series called Refresh Your Routines. This woman has five kids under the age of 5, including two sets of twins. (Shall we just have a moment to let that sink in?) She talks about scheduling chores in a way I had never thought about before, and I want you to hear what she has to say. Then she talks about prayer and Bible reading as part of your routine, and I beg you to listen to that. I love her intense focus on centering all of homemaking around knowing God. (More than anything, I want you to know God.)
Homemaking and knowing God: We need to be women who learn how to beautifully blend these two things together.
If you could improve one system or routine in your homemaking life, where would you start? I’d love to hear from you.
May you be a woman who expresses your love for the Lord by thinking well about the routines you’re using to build your home. {eoa}
This article originally appeared at christyfitzwater.com.
Janet Perez Eckles 
Shawn Akers 
Abby Trivett