49. Житейские дела. Как относиться к делам житейским, чтобы они не отвлекали, а совмещались со служением Богу

I continue my speech in response to your complaint about unsettled thoughts due to everyday activities. What to do without anything? There will be sinful idleness. And you need to work something, and do some chores around the house. This is your duty. And external relations cannot be stopped. We must hold them, and hold them properly. This is the duty of human coexistence. But all such matters and activities can and should be done in such a way that they do not discourage thoughts of God. How is this possible? We have a belief, and it is almost universal, that as soon as you do anything around the house or outside it, you are already stepping out of the realm of divine affairs and pleasing to God. That’s why, when the desire to live a life pleasing to God arises or the conversation comes up, they usually couple it with the thought that if this is the case, then run away from society, run away from home into the desert, into the forest. Meanwhile, both are wrong. Everyday and social affairs, on which the standing of houses and societies depends, are matters determined by God, and their fulfillment is not running away into an area unpleasing, but is walking in divine affairs. Having such an incorrect belief, everyone does so that in everyday and social matters they have no concern whatsoever about thinking about God. I see that this belief has a hold on you too. Please, throw it away and become convinced that everything you do at home and outside, in community affairs, as a daughter, as a sister, as a Muscovite now, is Divine and pleasing to God. For there are special commandments for everything related to this. How will fulfilling the commandments be displeasing to God? By your belief, you definitely make them displeasing to God, because you do not fulfill them with the disposition with which God wants them to be fulfilled. Divine deeds are not done in God’s way among us. They go to waste and also take the mind away from God. Correct this and from now on begin to do all such things with the consciousness that to do so is a commandment, and do them as if you are fulfilling the commandments of God. When you tune in this way, not a single thing in life will distance your thoughts from God, but, on the contrary, will bring you closer to Him. We are all servants of God. He has assigned to each his own place and task and watches how everyone fulfills it. He is everywhere. And He is watching over you. Keep this in mind and do every task as if it were entrusted to you directly from God, no matter what it is. So do things around the house. And when someone comes from outside or you yourself go outside, keep in mind in the first case that God sent you that person and is seeing whether you will accept him in God’s way and treat him, and in the second - that God has entrusted you with a task outside the house and is seeing whether you will do it the way He wants you to do it. If you set yourself up this way, then nothing at home or outside the home will distract your mind from God, but, on the contrary, will keep you close to Him, with the consideration of how to do something pleasing to God. You will do everything with the fear of God, and this fear will support relentless attention to God. And what kind of affairs in the family and outside it are pleasing to God, if you please, understand this thoroughly by taking for guidance the books in which the necessary affairs are set out here. Understand thoroughly in order to separate in the current everyday and social order from what is due everything that is brought here by vanity, passions, man-pleasing and world-pleasing. But after you have expressed your determination to live a life pleasing to God, you will, of course, get away from all this without any special reminders. In addition to the above-mentioned belief, a certain, let me call it, infirmity is instilled into our deeds. This is caring. That every deed recognized as worthwhile must be done with all diligence - this is a duty protected by a terrible punishment: “Cursed is everyone who does the work of God with negligence” (Jer. 48:10). But care, or over-concern, which wears away the heart and does not give it peace, is the disease of the fallen, who has taken upon himself to arrange his own destiny and rushes about in all directions. She breaks up her thoughts and doesn’t allow them to concentrate even on the matter she’s busy about. So, if you please, delve into it, and if you find that you are sometimes overcome by this concern, take the trouble to drive it away and not let it go. Have zeal for your deeds and, doing them with all diligence, expect success from God, dedicating the work itself to Him, no matter how small it may be, and suppress worries. Do this - and your activities and everyday affairs will not distract you from God. Help you, Lord! You might be interested in: