I wrote this article for Christian Today about our sense of wanting to do enough to appease our conscience.

About a year after becoming a mother, I went to a meeting for young mums. As an ice-breaker, the leader asked us to answer the question, “What is the minimum you have to do in the morning before you will go out?”

As we went around the circle, I became more and more surprised by the wide variety of answers. Some mothers barely did more than get dressed before going out. While others wouldn’t venture out until they had put on a load of washing, mopped the kitchen floor and completed numerous other chores. I felt my own answer was quite adequate. I said, “washing the dishes and making the bed.”

However, I came away from the meeting thinking, who’s making up the rules here? Why did some mothers feel they had to do all these jobs first thing in the morning while others felt no such obligation?

And who told me that I had to wash the dishes and make the bed before I could leave the house?

To read the rest of the article, click here.