Holiness for Housewives

I’ve always hated those guilt-tripping “holiness” books that are geared toward some imaginary type of person that the author thinks should exist but I’ve never encountered. You know, the kind of mom that has endless quiet hours for Scripture reading and daily prayer. If you don’t read your Bible for 30 minutes a day and have daily formal devotions, you aren’t living up to your calling.  Even if your calling includes waking every three hours at night and changing endless diapers and making endless meals and cleaning endless messes. (Don’t you know you’re supposed to get up at 4:00 am to do it, if the kids are too noisy during the day?!) With a wave of the hand and a “pfft!” I have always dismissed these books or sermons as completely impractical and a burden on the faithful. “God knows what my calling is and I will not feel guilty for not having devotions every single day!”
Well, this book isn’t anything like that.
Dom Zeller writes as though he has lived in my brain at some point. Every excuse, every rationalization, every resolve, he somehow knows. And yet he writes with such understanding and love, with encouragement and practical advice, that rather than instill guilt, it inspires me to cultivate my interior life.
What he does is he explains the inherent dignity that is motherhood and housewifery, and shows practical ways that I can actually USE the “drudgery” and constant interruptions as occasions for submitting my will to God’s. He goes against these false notions of theoretical “holiness” that require one to resemble a hermit, and teaches how to “pray without ceasing” in a way that is actually doable. Best of all he does not impose any one method on all, but gives principles to easily apply to my particular situation. Whereas other authors merely make you feel like giving up before you even start, this book makes you think “Hey, I can do that. I’ll start now!”
I can’t say enough good things about this book. When I read it, I feel like quoting every page. I think I need to read it about every two weeks. (Which happens to be doable, it’s only about 100 pages.)