Susanna Wesley's Apron

Susanna Wesley raised nineteen children in a cramped Epworth rectory in early eighteenth-century England. The woman never lacked for Martha's kind of work. There were meals to stretch on a clergyman's meager salary, lessons to prepare for each child's homeschool education, linens to wash, fires to tend. Her husband Samuel was often away in London, leaving her to manage the household alone.

Yet Susanna carved out a daily practice that puzzled her older children. Each afternoon, she would sit in her kitchen chair, pull her apron up over her head, and pray. The children learned quickly: when Mother's apron was up, she was not to be disturbed. In that small tent of linen, surrounded by the smell of bread and the noise of a full house, she sat at the feet of the Almighty.

She once wrote to her son John, who would later spark the Methodist revival, "I am content to fill a little space if God be glorified." That contentment was not resignation. It was the deliberate choice of a woman who understood that the most productive thing she could do in a house full of demands was to stop and listen.

Martha loved Jesus and showed it through service. Mary loved Jesus and showed it by sitting still. Susanna Wesley, with an apron over her head and children tugging at her skirt, proved that even in the busiest household, choosing the better portion remains possible.