“The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.”
Attributed to G. K. Chesterton
I’m sitting in my own ordinary living room thinking about those words, and about how much my ordinary has changed over the past four years.
There are days I would love to step back into for a little while, days that probably felt uneventful when I was living them. I wonder how much of them I spent distracted, thinking about what needed to be done or what I wished were different, with very little thought for how precious they would become to me.
Four years sounds like such a small stretch of a life until I begin remembering how much can change within it.
What once felt settled can become something I look back on, and a new version of ordinary can form around me before I have quite finished missing the old one.
Even now, as I sit here grateful for the life I have, there are parts of those earlier days I wish I had paid more attention to.
I suppose I thought I would remember more than I do.
There is so much about a familiar day that seems impossible to forget while it is happening, and then time carries it far enough away that I find myself reaching for details.
I can remember how a season felt without being able to gather up all the little things that made it ours.
That makes me want to be a little more present in this one.
It is easy to let the wanting take up so much room.
There is always a better job or another promotion to work toward, a larger house, a nicer car, a vacation that looks wonderful through someone else’s pictures.
Even a perfectly useful room can begin to disappoint after enough time looking at what other people have done with theirs.
I understand the pleasure of making a home beautiful, and I have wishes of my own.
I also know how easily my thoughts can wander toward the next improvement while I am sitting in the middle of a life I love.
“But godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Timothy 6:6.
Contentment has a very real place to live in my day, among the things that need attention and the plans that have yet to work out.
I can ask God to help me grow in it while I am still learning how to hold the changes in my life, still finding myself wistful over something that has passed.
There is room in a grateful heart for missing what was.
When I think about growing old, perhaps living in a nursing home someday with only a few belongings around me, I wonder which memories I will return to most often.
I can imagine wanting an afternoon with the people I love as they are today, in the home we have now, with all the familiar details I barely notice.
I would want to hear them talking and have enough time to listen.
The kitchen could stay exactly as it was.
And I wonder whether, given that afternoon back, I would recognize the happiness in it sooner.
There is a tenderness in that thought that makes this room feel dearer to me.
I am here now, living a day I may someday wish I could borrow again.
It has its own concerns, and being thankful does very little to shorten the list of things that need doing, but I can feel how much I would miss if I were always waiting for a more impressive life to begin.
My ordinary has magic in it.
I mean the wonder of having a life that is mine, of loving people whose presence matters to me in ways I could spend years trying to explain.
So much of that love is woven into familiar days, where it can become easy to overlook because it has been there so often.
I think of Mary, and the way Scripture says she held what was happening in her life: “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” Luke 2:19.
I want to keep more of mine.
I want to give a moment enough of my attention that it has somewhere to settle in my memory, and to thank the Lord while I am still living inside the gift.
I have already seen how a few years can change the shape of ordinary, and I know the coming years will bring changes of their own.
For now, I’m grateful to be here, in this living room, with this life around me.
There are things I am still praying about and things I wish I could understand, and somehow gratitude keeps finding its way through them.
The more I sit with it, the more there seems to be to thank Him for.
I hope I remember this when today has become one of the days I look back on.
I hope I remember that, for a little while, I slowed down enough to realize how much I loved my own magical ordinary.
Biblical Womanhood
PLEASE READ ABOUT MY END-OF-YEAR HOLIDAY FUNDRAISER 👇🏻 👇🏻 BELOW 👇🏻 👇🏻
Brings together a collection of 100 of my most popular 2026 Biblical Womanhood essays on faith, family, home, and staying faithful through the seasons that test us.
This is formatted to be VERY printer-friendly!
This is an end-of-year holiday fundraiser in support of the Biblical Womanhood ministry, and the pricing reflects that purpose.
Every purchase is more than simply an exchange; it is a way of coming alongside us and helping sustain the work the Lord has given us to do.
There are many behind-the-scenes, practical expenses that go into keeping a ministry like this running, and the proceeds from this fundraiser will help meet those needs and carry this work into the coming year.
We are deeply grateful for those who believe in what we are doing and are willing to invest in its continuation.
Your support, whether through a purchase, a contribution, or simply sharing our work with others, makes a genuine difference.
We don't take lightly the privilege of having you alongside us, and we hope you'll consider being part of helping Biblical Womanhood continue to grow and serve in the year ahead.
Everyone who purchases this product to support this ministry will also receive the FIRST Biblical Womanhood digital Bible study released in 2027 free of charge!
You can support this ministry, and get your copy here:
If you would like to support this ministry with a different donation amount you can choose to do so here:
*any donation over $24.99 will receive “These Brief & Beautiful Days” as well.
