Diligence is the persistent and intentional effort to do something well. It’s something we all need to have. And it’s something I’ve struggled with for a long time.
I can think of easily a handful of places in my life where I really could use more diligence. But the place it’s most obviously missing for me is housework.
It’s been ages since I’ve had a good cleaning routine. And unfortunately, I am no longer in the trenches where it’s totally acceptable for your house to be trashed because small children constantly un-do whatever cleaning you manage to get to. It was a good excuse while it lasted.
But now my kids are older. But my diligence is still missing. I knew it was getting bad. Eric rarely mentions how I do things around the house, but he’s struggled more often with the state of the kitchen. I could tell. And I did have a workable routine set up, but they changed the bus routes last year, and my plan didn’t work the same with the new timetable. So I lost that, and just never found it again.
So instead of diligence, my house got the clean-in-great-spurts-because-someone-is-coming-over treatment. Keeps the embarrassment down while non-family is in the house, but not very effective.
I knew things needed to change. I knew I needed to find something that works for me. My house, my husband, my family need better treatment.
And then, Pastor Geoff preached on diligence on Sunday. He’s working through Proverbs this summer, describing some of the qualities of wisdom, and last Sunday, we focused on diligence, as well as its antithesis: laziness. Dang.it.
The Holy Spirit didn’t even have to nudge me. In fact, I think he was chuckling. But I still got the hint. It’s time. Let’s make some changes.
So I’ve been making an effort to be more diligent. Not on everything. Not the whole house. Just in a few things. I’m not going to be able to sustain “clean my whole house every week” just yet. I need smaller. And that’s okay. So I started with just a couple of things I’m trying to do every day: sweep the floor, make the bed, start one load of laundry, empty the dishwasher. Little things really. Ten minute chores. But by doing them regularly, I’m hoping to
- Keep my house generally tidier.
- Make space for other chores on a more regular basis
- Create diligence in other areas I know I need to work on (writing, for example)
I’ve been working on it for most of the week. It hasn’t been perfect, but it has been a start. And the need for it was absolutely reinforced by Tim’s reaction to my sweeping the floor yesterday:
“Mom, you’re sweeping. Who’s coming over?”
So here’s to more diligence…on the housework front at least.
Talk to me: Where could you use more diligence in your life?
