How do you find the balance between keeping your life under control and keeping your heart in check? In her book, Having a Martha Home the Mary Way, Sarah Mae gives daily assignments for your heart and your home. It's so easy to feel overwhelmed and to not know where to start when you survey your closets and secret stashes of things you can't bear to part with, but don't know what to do with.
One of my favorite phrases is, 'How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.' In her book, Sarah attacks the elephant mess of your house and breaks it apart into 31 bite size pieces. Each day, she provides a devotional reading dealing with areas of contentment, priorities, motivation, and developing a vision for your home. She ends each chapter with an assignment for the day such as cleaning out the kids' closets, washing all the floors, emptying out the junk drawer, etc.
The things I loved about this book were how she broke it down into small steps, and how she balanced house work with heart work. From experience, it's easy to write a to do list, and know what rooms need help, then feel overwhelmed in knowing where to start. I've heard of people doing book clubs with this book, to keep each other accountable in finishing each day's assignment. It's also easy to get caught up in doing, and miss Jesus' invitation to join Him in his vision for our home and life.
To be honest, in this season of life with a 1 year old, a puppy, and expecting our next, I couldn't keep up with the assignments. The layout won't fit everyone's season of life. For some, it may be better to do two chapters a week, instead of one a day. I chose to read it for the main ideas, instead of following the game plan. More important to me were the major concepts of: just do something/start somewhere (don't sit there), don't keep it all, determine your main priorities, have a vision for your home, be intentional, and ask Jesus for help.
I received a complementary copy of the book from Tyndale House for review purposes.
