Friday, November 13, 2009

Clean - Without Spot


Today I had one of those crazy moods where I was fed up with my house and wanted to clean it. Actually wanted to.

The desire began with a want to vacuum up bread crumbs that my daughter so kindly left on my couch. But it quickly turned its attention to the kitchen floor, which desperately looked dingy and dirty. Surely I would have energy to sweep do a quick swiffer mop and then move on to cleaning up the "crummy" spots in my family room.

The kitchen floor was cleaned as usual, a good sweep a good clean with the swiffer. But this time it was just not enough. I kept swiffering over the same scuff mark that has been on my floor since the dawn of time. The food spots that were so caked on the swiffer was not strong enough to take away, the corners under the cabinets and dishwasher that I just couldn't reach very well.

Silly me, I got the idea in my head that I could get down and spot clean these few spots, scrubbing with a sponge scrubber side and wiping clean with a rag.

When I got down, I realized I had never done this before. Not once. Not in our old places, not here. I had never given my kitchen floor a good hand scrub. I had energy, my knees felt okay, so I got started.

About 3/4 of the way through I was in pain. Serious pain. My hands were shaky, my wrists ached, my knees stung. I had removed the dirt under the cabinets and the notorious scuff mark. Wasn't that enough?

For some reason, I then thought of the Savior. I thought of his healing power and the power of repentance and forgiveness. Moroni 10:33 says, "And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot."

The Lord does not just clean our surface and move on. He cleanses us completely, leaving us without blemish, without spot.

I decided to keep scrubbing. I may not have the strength to vacuum now, but it certainly taught me a lesson.

I have no idea if scrubbing the floor is going to benefit my life, or my family. But it certainly was a benefit this day to my spirituality.

I doubt Tyson will notice the places that I picked off crusts of old paint and food with my fingernails. He may not even notice a difference at all. But I know that it's clean.

It is much like the world. They will fight us and ridicule us. They will not notice our clean spirits and pass us by as unimportant. But the Lord has fought hard for us. When his physical body wanted to give up, he persevered. We were worth it. We ARE worth it.

Now...

Anyone wanna come eat lunch off my clean floor? I promise it's clean! ;)

Have a great day everyone!

5 comments:

Ratliffs said...

Haha..you're too funny. And very inspirational too! Now you know how I feel everyday!! It is seriouly very hard for me to leave my house in any state of messiness. Most of the time I can do it without pain, but I have to be very careful. Congrats on doing such a great job! Doesn't it make you feel so good?!

Stacey said...

Yeah...like I said I don't know if it was all that beneficial to me other than my moment of inspiration.

The vacuuming still needs to be done. ;)

Rob & Tiffanie said...

I know cleaning isn't spiritual, but I always feel entirely better as a person when i know my home is clean. I wish someone else would be the one to clean it, but...

Shauna S said...

These small moments of Spirituality are the best. When you really feel like the "spiritual person having a mortal experience". I think these are the moments Heavenly Father enjoys most in our lives, just like we enjoy it when our kids suddenly learn something new and we enjoy it with them.

Geo said...

Wonderful thoughts. Who knew that housecleaning could become a spiritual experience? ; )