When I was about 18, I worked part-time as a mother’s helper. One day, I remember standing over a bed covered with clean-ish (musty) laundry and thinking, “why bother folding it?”
It seemed like such a waste of time; there were more heaps waiting in the hall, and if I folded each item, it would never all get done! Besides – the kids would just shove clothes into their drawers, and it would all get tumbled and crumpled – that is, if it ever made it to the drawers at all. What a losing battle.
But was it? Is it?
The question is certainly not confined to domestic operations; rather, it touches every area of our lives. Since we lost the Garden of Eden we have been threatened by disorder to the extent that if we slacken our efforts at order, chaos explodes around us.
Abandon discipline at sea, and there is a mutiny; ignore the operations manual in the power plant, and there is a nuclear meltdown; fail to discipline children, and society disintegrates. With so many (major) battles to fight, perhaps laundry seems even further down the priority list. Cram it into the drawers and be done with it! But no – not so fast.
Folding laundry may seem like a petty thing – and granted, it is a small thing in the order of goods. But small things build magnificent things. Fighting disorder at the most basic levels can prepare us to fight it at the highest levels.
The battles vary day by day.
Sometimes it’s the laundry, sometimes it’s the budget, sometimes trying to figure out which fight is the most important is a large part of the battle! But creating order in the home, while difficult, is a million times easier than trying to manufacture it in a society. The beauty and tranquility attendant in a well-ordered home, translate into peace and stability in a well-ordered state. Our souls, families, and society depend on our little victories over chaos. Form the habit now, in the daily tasks. Surround yourself with order; allow it to leave its impression on your mind, manners, tastes, emotions – on your very soul.
Of course, there is a time and a place for everything. If you are violently ill with the stomach bug, please rest, and let your laundry lie. But if keeping piles of crumpled clothes all over your floor has become a habit, perhaps disorder, that insidious agent of chaos, has encroached a little too far. Give the enemy no quarter! Put your life in order; put him in his place.
