Common Duties

I read this yesterday morning, before a day of company and dishes and busyness. Bishop Brooke Foss Westcott on faithfulness:

"Great thoughts go best with common duties. Whatever therefore may be your office regard it as a fragment in an immeasurable ministry of love" (Elisabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart, p. 84).

When I have time pressure and long to-do lists, it can be hard to regard general household duties or other menial tasks as anything particularly significant--and not just a burden of mandatory labor.

But I want a heart that regards common duties as a small stewardship, an expression of love for the One who gave them to me, and an opportunity to cultivate faithfulness.

"His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master'" (Matthew 25:21).