Finding Peace Through Everyday Tasks

Charisse Tierney ponders the hidden gifts in our mundane daily chores.

The thought of making an apple pie can feel daunting. Piles of clean laundry are often overwhelming. Endless toys strewn about leave me paralyzed by where to start. Cleaning yet another toilet feels tedious and mundane.

But then my hands start to peel apples. My arms hoist baskets of laundry. My legs bend to pick up toys. And my knees hit the floor to clean around the toilet.

It is in these movements of living the practical side of my life that my mind starts to clear the cobwebs of stress.

There’s something soothing about repetition and predictable results.

I watch the apple peel curling off of the fruit and feel a healing satisfaction as the bowl fills with crispy white apple slices.

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The act of folding a basket of clean clothes feels so simple and easy, like a brief escape back to Eden and the way God originally intended work to be—fulfilling in a way that only a task that connects the mind and body equally can do.

Sorting and picking up toys helps me sort and pick out the priorities in my life.

And even cleaning the toilet reminds me that all things can be made clean and new again.

God gave us these daily tasks as a gift. The work of our hands helps the work of our minds. Sometimes it is in working through the most mundane housekeeping tasks that helps me get closer to a solution for the most complex issue in my life at the moment.