The following are quotes, written by Louisa May Alcott, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and others, that I found particularly inspiring and wanted to share with you today. May the words that these individuals wrote both challenge and encourage as you take a moment to ponder them.
“It belittles us to think of our daily tasks as small things, and if we continue to do so, it will in time make us small. It will narrow our horizon and make of our work just drudgery. There are so many little things that are really very great, and when we learn to look beyond the insignificant-appearing acts themselves to their far-reaching consequences, we will ‘despise not the day of small things.’ We will feel an added dignity and poise from the fact that our everyday round of duties is as important as any other part of the work of the world.
And just as a little thread of gold, running through a fabric, brightens the whole garment, so women’s work at home, while only the doing of little things, is like the golden gleam of sunlight that runs through and brightens all the fabric of civilization.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder
“Let’s be cheerful! We have no more right to steal the brightness out of the day for our own family than we have to steal the purse of a stranger. Let us be as careful that our homes are furnished with pleasant and happy thoughts as we are that the rugs are the right color and texture and the furniture comfortable and beautiful.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder
“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.”
Louisa May Alcott
“The humblest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.”
Louisa May Alcott
“The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.”
Proverbs 14:1
“Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.”
Psalm 127:1
“The way you keep your house, the way you organize your time, the care you take in your personal appearance, the things you spend your money on, all speak loudly about what you believe. The beauty of thy peace shines forth in an ordered life. A disordered life speaks loudly of disorder in the soul.”
Elisabeth Elliot
“This job has been given to me to do. Therefore, it is a gift. Therefore, it is a privilege. Therefore, it is an offering I may make to God. Therefore, it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him. Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness.”
Elisabeth Elliot
“If you have been afraid that your love of beautiful flowers and the flickering flame of the candle is somehow less spiritual than living in starkness and ugliness, remember that He who created you to be creative gave you the things with which to make beauty and the sensitivity to appreciate and respond to His creation.”
Edith Schaeffer
“There needs to be a homemaker exercising some measure of skill, imagination, creativity, desire to fulfill needs and give pleasure to others in the family. How precious a thing is the human family. Is it not worth some sacrifice in time, energy, safety, discomfort, work? Does anything come forth without work?”
Edith Schaeffer
“You are as much serving God in looking after your own children, and training them up in God’s fear, and minding the house, and making your household a church for God, as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts.”
Charles Spurgeon
Find More Encouragement
- God’s Great Heart | Billy Graham
- Identified or Simply Interested? | Oswald Chambers
- Hope Lives Here
- The Determination to Serve | Oswald Chambers
- This Momentary Affliction
- Rest for the Weary | Billy Graham