Chapter 7—Faithfulness in Home Duties
Dear Sister O,
I think you are not happy. In seeking for some great work to do,
you overlook present duties lying directly in your path. You are not
happy, because you are looking above the little everyday duties of life
for some higher and greater work to do. You are restless, uneasy, and
dissatisfied. You love to dictate better than you love to perform. You
love better to tell others what to do than with ready cheerfulness to
take hold and do yourself.
You could have made your father’s home more happy had you
studied your inclination less and the happiness of others more. When
engaged in the common, ordinary duties of life you fail to put your
heart into your labor. Your mind is reaching forward and beyond to a
work more agreeable, higher, or more honorable. Somebody must do
these very things that you take no pleasure in and even dislike. These
plain, simple duties, if done with willingness and faithfulness, will
give you an education which it is necessary for you to obtain in order
to have a love for household duties. Here is an experience that is highly
essential for you to gain, but you do not love it. You murmur at your lot,
thus making those around you unhappy and meeting with a great loss
yourself. You may never be called to do a work which will bring you
before the public. But all the work we do that is necessary to be done,
[80]
be it washing dishes, setting tables, waiting upon the sick, cooking,
or washing, is of moral importance; and until you can cheerfully and
happily take up these duties you are not fitted for greater and higher
duties. The humble tasks before us are to be taken up by someone;
and those who do them should feel that they are doing a necessary and
honorable work, and that in their mission, humble though it may be,
they are doing the work of God just as surely as was Gabriel when
sent to the prophets. All are working in their order in their respective
spheres. Woman in her home, doing the simple duties of life that must
be done, can and should exhibit faithfulness, obedience, and love as
74