My praise, like others often say, is long overdue, but also like everyone—He continues to add more blessings—right on top of the one He began!!
Several months ago I heard that a distant relative was looking for more work. She cleans houses and used to clean mine years ago. So I asked my HH because I honestly didn’t “need” anyone to clean because it never gets dirty enough and also because *I* like to clean. Nevertheless, as I am in the habit of doing with everything I do, I asked my HH. He reminded me it wasn’t about *Me* but about what this sweet girl needed, which I suspected was more than additional income.
When she worked for me in the past, I “assumed” she was a Christian. She came from a Christian family and she was sweet and quiet. A few weeks after she began cleaning for me (years ago), someone close to her said how her MIL had been praying fervently that God would send someone to speak into her life because she wasn’t a believer.
Funny thing is, no matter who I am talking to, I assume and talk to everyone the very same way. And I always share what’s on my heart, and 99.9% of the time, Who is on my heart is what He’s done for me that I love to tell people about. I simply can’t help it 🙂
So I’d done the same thing, obviously, and hadn’t changed how I spoke to this sweet girl and shortly after I moved and she no longer worked for me, I heard she’s “radically gotten saved”—her family’s words. Then periodically I would hear amazing testimonies of how she was honestly “living” a WW book! I guess I shared a lot more than I thought 😉
So fast forward to now and she began working for me. It was every other week, and each time before she comes, I always ask my HH to let me know if I am supposed to say something OR if I should just be quiet so we can both work.
One day I heard from another family member how she and her MIL were really doing all they could to get her to clean her own house and went on to tell me the state of it. I was shocked because she cleans houses. I knew there was more to this, and thankfully I have a sweet HH who knows every detail and I knew that by asking He would also let me know how I could encourage her.
So when she came one day we began just talking about nothing important and then I heard myself saying something about “understanding” because our mothers were the same. Like Erin, my mother never kept a clean home so when I married I had no clue.
Well, I had no idea that her childhood was so horrible because her mom had a mental illness so her example was someone completely unable to function.
I mentioned workers@home explaining how it had helped me, and then got one sent to her as my gift. (I also recently took the new w@h course).
Two weeks later she’d mentioned readingworkers@home but said she didn’t know where to start. She was also getting pressure from family members, so again I was able to explain how I can really really understand that most people don’t get it. How other people don’t understand because they didn’t grow up like we had. I told her the only way was when He helped me and that He would help her too and just keep giving her mess to Him.
Another couple of weeks went by and that’s when my HH told me to add more money to what I usually paid her, paying her for another hour plus adding a bigger tip. This money was to pay her to go to her own house. To clean her own home—tackling just one room at a time.
When I offered it to her, I also had the cash paper-clipped for what I usually paid her. I said, “just that take the larger amount if this would not put more pressure on her. That the additional was to lift her burden, not add to it. When she left I saw she’d taken the larger amount and a few days later she texted me a before and after picture of a small corner of one room!
Each time she came I was careful to let her know, only take the larger amount of cash if she wasn’t burdened, and each week I was happy to see she took the larger sum.
Then right before she came to clean this week, I got a call from a family member who said her MIL came over and she was “invited” inside. Usually, she just runs out to meet her outside, but this time she smiled and said, “Come on in!” and her house was SPOTLESS. Her MIL said she had never ever seen it that clean and she’s also decorated her front door for the holidays. Her dining room table was cleared, cleaned and had a pretty arrangement in the center too.
When her son came in from school, her MIL was amazed because he hung his backpack up on the hook that his mom had placed in their little entryway and he did it without being told to do it. So she wrote to “thank me for investing in her and giving her the “push” and motivation to start!” I replied saying, “How encouraging. I’ve got goosebumps. Such a sweet dear family. I’m so in awe to see when GOD moves” so she knew it was Him and not me!
1 Peter 3:7 says to “live… in an understanding way” with women since we are weaker vessels” which is how He treats us and how we should treat others.
~ Amy in New Mexico