Around our parts, there is a company called “Merry Maids.”  These happy ladies will come and clean your home with a smile for a small fortune.  I love the ads on the tube.  The ladies look so cute in their happy little uniforms dusting and vacuuming.  They make housework look so fun.  Maybe the smile is an end result of the exchange of currency…. I don’t know…..

Yesterday, I had had it…..I had been a little lazy busy and the housework has fallen behind.  Everywhere I turned I saw dust, dirt, grime, and cobwebs in every corner.   So it was deep cleaning time…….and even though I was playing Toby Mac and praising the Lord while working hard…… I felt it in my stomach….. that feeling of……”Why do I have to do this all by myself?”  Then the words that I swore I would never say because Mom regularly said them, “What do they think I am….. a maid?”  ***insert record scratching sound***  My mother just walked into my house……Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

And to think I had just told someone the other day, “Don’t think of it as cleaning…. think of it as blessing your home!”   Yeah, right… who am I kidding?? And here I am pulling out the pity party hats and getting ready to have a bash.   Then came the voice in my head, “Why can’t they pick up their shoes?” ….. “Why am I stuck doing all the laundry”……  ”I need to hit the smile off of a  Merry Maid!”……. I don’t know why I think that would make me feel better????? I just couldn’t get my pity party hat on fast enough!

As the tension grew inside of me, something else started stirring in my gut.  I felt it swelling up in my eyes…..I opened my heart and my mouth, “Thank You, God.”  Those three words blurted out of my mouth…. Thank you for a home.  Thank you for my children.  Thank you for the health and strength to clean my house.  Thank you for the good feeling we get when our homes are neatly kept.  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!

I just stood there with the mop in my hand, crying like a little baby.  God had just plucked my pity party hat’s string and it stung.  Where was my grateful heart?  Feeling like a scolded child, I took my own words of advice and began blessing my home.

It amazes me how much better I feel when I bless the mess……

God Bless…..

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