Articles – Marriage-Dating

Drudgery or Blessing—Your Decision

by Joy Staton

Carlos and Joy Staton are longtime members of First Baptist Church of Hammond. They sing in the adult choir and are frequent guest vocalists in Sunday school classes.

As a teenager, I was quite a party girl—pity party, that is! Because of my persistent poor attitude, everything I was told to do by my parents became drudgery. I made myself a slave, not of my parents, but of my own sinful will. I felt I had the right to talk back to my mother. I was afraid to do so with my dad, but the attitude was still present. And so, I wasted my precious teen years in a miserable prison of my own making. I was like the little boy in the “Peanuts” cartoon strip who had a continual dark cloud over his head.

One of my weekly tasks was to do our family’s ironing. My mom’s procedure was that on the first day, I was to sprinkle each piece of clothing with water. I would then wad each item into a small ball, put them in a large plastic bag, and then place the tightly closed bag on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator until we all ran out of things to wear. One hot summer day, I was slaving over the ironing board ironing my dad’s work shirts and brooding over my terrible lot in life. I thought I knew how Cinderella must have felt. But where was my handsome prince? Then, for some reason, I began thinking about our own dad; I envisioned how hard he had always worked and how he never complained, no matter what happened. The more I thought, the more I cried, thinking of both him and my mom and how they had always loved and sacrificed for us. They never thought of themselves, but only of my sister’s and my welfare. That day I thanked the Lord for both of them. This was almost like an ‘out of body’ experience for a girl who had only fixated on herself. That day was the turning point in a selfish teenager’s life.

From that time on, every week as I was ironing, the sweat still dripped down my face, but it no longer mattered. I began to pray for each person as I ironed his or her garment—even my sister’s!

This practice has followed me through forty years of marriage and raising two children. Now every time I iron my wonderful husband’s clothing, I pray for him and thank the Lord for him. My drudgery has turned into blessing!

Additional Resources: A Peaceful Marriage by Cindy Schaap