It has been a long time coming.
It is said that cleanliness is close to godliness.
That statement is true in the fact that to be close to God you must be clean, and that cleansing can only happen by the remission of sin through the blood of Jesus Christ of Calvary. But if the statement pertains to children or housecleaning I’m not sure that there’s any truth in the statement what so ever.
When I was a young girl my mother enrolled us in Brownies, the beginning stage of the Girl Scouts of America. We were taught many helpful ideas during this time in our life, but one of the favorite stories they would like to tell was the one of the little Brownies that would come to the people’s house at night. They would clean it top to bottom before the people woke up. Evidently, I was a gullible child, because I took the story literally and would clean mother’s house and let her think the Brownies did it. I tried to instill that story in my kids when they were in Scouts but they didn’t buy a word of it. Life isn’t fair.
At this time of year everyone is frustrated from being cooped up inside. They are so anxious for warm weather they needed to find a release for all this pent-up energy. Thus spring cleaning was invented, at least that’s my take on it. It is at this time of year the television ads bring out all the new products to clean your house, weed your lawn, or do your laundry. One product swears it is better than all the rest. That is a mantra that each one claims, and I’ve yet to prove any one of them superior since they took the phosphates out.
So being the dutiful wife that I am, I decided it’s time to do some spring cleaning. Excited with all the newfangled products, I thought I would try each one to see which I thought would be best. I took each product to the designated room for which it was labeled. I stood and I watched and I waited and I watched and I waited, but, nothing happened, no scrubbing bubbles, no magic in a bottle, no nothing. You see you can put any kind of cleaner, or scrubbing bubbling products on the back of the toilet in the bottle, and nothing is going to happen.You have to take the lid off and apply said product to that porcelain fixture. Then you have to add the magic ingredient, and yes, this is where the magic comes in. It’s called elbow grease! No fancy packaging, promised effects, or even Bamblastic Blooms will have any effect on your fixtures without the magic ingredient of elbow grease. No new spin mops, push and pull mops, ring out by hand mops, or squirt and rub mops, will do anything by themselves.
Well I have to tell you I was more than just a little disappointed to know I still have to get down on my hands and knees and scrubbed the bathroom floor with the new better than ever product I just bought. I miss the good old days when the kids were home, and Saturday rolled around. We had what we called a job jar, where little scraps of paper were put, describing a job that needed to be done that day. Each child got to draw a piece of paper out of the job jar and that would tell them what their job was that day. Let me tell you with six kids it doesn’t take long to get the house in some kind of order. Jobs were simple; take out the garbage, wash the dishes, clean the toilet, start the laundry, dust, wax, vacuum etc.. If the child’s age was not appropriate for the job they picked, they would get help from their mom, who would teach them the right way to do the job. At that time I didn’t have any fancy new mops, entertaining cleansers, or magic erasers, but with all those kids, there was a plethora of elbow grease. I really miss the good old days.
Cleaning is never limited just to the house, we had to clean the yard, the garage, the cars, and the kids even waxed their bikes. I remember one time I had taken the kids out strawberry picking, and we picked 26 quarts of strawberries. Planning on making strawberry jam I gave the oldest children the job of rinsing the berries and taking the tops off. I had to run lunch out to my husband who was planting the fields on the farm and came back half hour later to find both sinks filled with water and strawberries, which were now gray, floating in bright pink water. I guess you could say the kids got distracted not knowing that the strawberries would turn to mush if left in the water. 26 quarts of strawberries were given to the chickens, and I think they even turn their beaks up at them. Nothing replaces elbow grease, a job done quickly and efficiently, is a job well done.
The Christian life is much like cleaning house. You can buy every book on the market about soul-searching, being a better person, every printing of the Bible that is out there, but if you don’t apply the elbow grease nothing changes. It’s just that simple read the book, (Bible), follow the instructions, and become clean! The instructions are found in the Bible, but you must pick it up and read it, hence the elbow grease here is applied. Anytime you want to see results and effort must be made. This is true of marriage, parenting, being a good friend.
As parents it is our job to teach our children responsibility. Some parents choose to buy their children a pet so they can learn how to properly take care of said animal. Some parents will teach a child how to dust, sweep, and vacuum. Trust me people, they will not die learning these lessons. It is also our job to make sure they know how to take care of their eternal soul, applying our elbow grease in the role of being a parent and doing the best job we can.
We as authors know firsthand that stories don’t write themselves. Ideas sometimes have to be worked over and over to be made seamless. You can buy all the pens and paper and ink and erasers you want, but, if you don’t sit down and apply your elbow grease to them nothing happens. There’s a good life lesson in there somewhere, do you think you can figure out what it is?
Happy spring cleaning everyone!
And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished.
Luke 11:25
To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
Titus 2:5
She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
Proverbs 31:27
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalms 51:10