When my husband said I had a chore addiction, I laughed. There is no possible way that I have an addiction to something that I dislike. Then he asked me to go a day without work. At first I thought it would be easy. Five minutes later, I was experiencing tightness in my chest.

No work.  I couldn’t get caught up on laundry. What would we wear? I couldn’t do dishes. What would we eat on? I couldn’t cook. What would we eat? I couldn’t get around to cleaning the carpets, tidying up the pantry, going through my son’s clothes for the upcoming consignment sale, putting up our Christmas decorations, organizing the shed, or completing any of the projects that have been on my radar for months. I started to have trouble breathing as I realized that nothing would get done that day.

I then sat on my couch for thirty minutes petting the dog, staring at my sleeping son, and wondering what I could possibly do for the rest of the day. We just cancelled Netflix and Direct TV, so I couldn’t watch anything. If I started a book, I would not have time to finish it. I was not allowed to go grocery shopping. I didn’t have clothes shopping in the budget.

I loaded my son into the car and headed to work. The girls up at the store hadn’t seen him in a while and going to work didn’t constitute as work as long as I was off the clock. Of course, a customer had to waltz in the door while my coworkers were all busy. I had to make a decision: do I help the customer or make him wait. I got dizzy as excuses twirled through my head. He could be a secret shopper and if I don’t help him, we will get a bad score. He could be a new customer, and if I make him wait we won’t win him over. One of my coworkers stumbled back to the front of the store and greeted the man as I exited. Work was not a good idea.

I journeyed home and arrived just as my husband was coming home for lunch. I had made it three hours without doing anything. He finished eating and left a plate on the tray. I instinctively got up to put it in the sink, but fell back to the couch. I had to get out of the house.

We drove to a town an hour away to make some returns at a department store and spent the rest of the night watching DVD’s and playing with the baby. As we were getting into bed that night (early because I was tired of not doing work), my husband and I discussed my day.

Bottom line: we survived eating leftovers with dishes in the sink and clothes in the laundry room. I don’t have to rush around every day trying to get ahead on a million chores that will never get completed.

This weekend, we did get a lot of things done. I did countless loads of laundry and dishes, we went through the clothes the baby has outgrown, we put the Christmas decorations in the shed, and I cleaned out the fridge and the pantry. However, the most important thing we did this weekend was take time to relax and spend time together as a family.

“So don’t worry, saying ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” ~Matthew 6:31-34