‍Each season of life, each day has its own troubles and struggles. It can seem easier to just throw up our hands and accept the stress and franticness of our day and age, especially in seasons of high need – teenagers with jobs who can’t drive yet, summertime activities, community commitments, health crises, caretaking, etc. It is difficult to believe that a slow start and slow finish are worthy of protecting when the to-do list is so long. But if you can live this way, even a little bit, it can calm your nerves. No matter what you face throughout the day, you will have some gentleness to enjoy, to strengthen your heart and mind and body. Isn’t it a funny thing that gentleness is what strengthens women? It seems a bit counterintuitive, but most women find courage, strength, and endurance in gentleness.

When I first came home and stepped away from “my career” I said yes to all the things and was never really focused on my home. As I said at the start, one of the blessings of my chronic health issues was being forced to be home and focus on home. I don’t want to lose that. I don’t want to just go-go-go all the time. I want to find the balance between housekeeping and hospitality. I want to have slow, quiet days and weeks. I want to be careful with my health. Housekeeping and Hospitality must be held in tension to stay in the golden mean.

There have been several times in my life where I’ve had to give things up that were important to me for Christ’s sake — not because they were wrong, but because they weren’t best. Each time the Lord has blessed me beyond measure. Letting go of this world and trusting Him has always proven His faithfulness, but never how I expected. I expected to go at the hard work of contentment. Who in the world is going to publish someone unknown and not even looking to be published?