cover image Glory in the Ordinary: Why Your Work in the Home Matters to God

Glory in the Ordinary: Why Your Work in the Home Matters to God

Courtney Reissig. Crossway Books, $14.99 trade paper (160p) ISBN 978-1-4335-5267-0

In this thoughtful, practical ode to the quotidian, Reissig (Accidental Feminist) glorifies ordinary household work: cooking and cleaning and changing diapers. Our work, she repeats often, “is a means of loving God by loving our neighbor.” “Neighbor,” to Reissig, includes social and faith communities, husbands, and children. The first of the eight chapters in this little book, all with Biblical passages threaded through, explores the shift from “housewife” to “stay-at-home mom.” Reissig acknowledges how disillusioning work can be, asserts that it does take a village, and declares that women have got to ask for help and receive it graciously as God-given. She also convincingly distinguishes between women’s godly guilt and worldly grief. Reissig ends each chapter with a vignette of how a woman she knows (including her own mother) handled the issue addressed in the chapter, and adds a series of questions for the reader, whom she addresses familiarly throughout. Her style—repetitive, with overlong quotations and bumptious transitions—assumes an earnest research-paper tone from a fundamentalist viewpoint. Though the message is at times delivered severely, the sentiment of respect for the ordinary is well-conveyed and necessary. [em](May) [/em]