Cleaning

My mom and I decided to clean the house today. We figured that with my dad and two of my brothers away at camp it would be a perfect time to do it. (My dad is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to cleaning and it can be stressful to clean the house with him at times. My brothers are just ..well kinda messy so anything you clean with them around tends to return to it's former state of messiness rather quickly.) Plus, my cousin and some of her family came to spend the night with us tonight on their way through to Pennsylvania...so all in all this was the perfect day to clean. Okay, well enough about my day..I don't want to use this blog as a list of my mundane day to day tasks. I have a journal for that. Anyway, as I was cleaning the bathroom I started to reminisce about the first time I cleaned a bathroom all by myself. I know, I know..I sound like a weirdo. Let me give you some background info though, so you don't think I am completely insane for remembering the first time I cleaned a toilet...My dad is "Mr. Clean" (not literally, he has hair, but you get the picture). He is also the hardest worker I know. When he was in college he worked as a janitor to pay his way through school so he is REALLY good at cleaning and he has bathroom cleaning down to an art form. I was 12 years old before he let me clean a bathroom all by myself. I remember I was determined to make that bathroom shine...I even polished the doorknob and asked mom for paint to touch up the floor boards. (It took me forever.) Then when I finished I went and got "Mr. Clean" for the inspection. I remember Dad looked at it and told me it was the cleanest bathroom he had ever seen. He also told me that I was so good at cleaning bathrooms that I should become the honary bathroom cleaner! I was ecstatic..and VERY niave. It didn't take long before I realized compliments about how I cleaned the dishes the best or I folded the clean towels the best was just a sneaky way my parents got me to do things they didn't want to do. Needless to say, it wasn't long before the title "Honary Bathroom Cleaner" lost it's luster. Bathrooms are kind of one of those rooms in the house that need to be cleaned frequently...and you get hot and sweaty (and get bleach stains on your favorite t-shirts) in the process. Before long the "but you clean the bathrooms the best" trick didn't work. I remember my Dad was trying to use that trick one day and I retorted with "Well maybe I'm not the best one..maybe Daniel is, but we don't know because you never ask him to do ANYTHING!"..pretty sure I got displined for that one...Okay, I need to reel this back in to my real point, which believe it or not, is not about bathrooms at all. As I was thinking back to all this I began to realize that sometimes I act the same way about things I know God has called me to do as I did about cleaning the bathrooms. At first, I am ecstatic about it. I know what God wants me to do and I jump on board to give it my best. However, I then get to the point where I think what I am doing doesn't matter at all..I don't see the fruit of my labor right away or it gets hard. I keep pouring myself out to whatever it may be He has called me to do and I see no progress. I get to the point where I say "God, maybe I'm not the best for this...you should ask someone else" Then Satan steps in and reminds me of all my failures and fills my head with lies. Thankfully, God reminds me (by whatever means necessary) that I am the best for what He has called me to do and shows me that I need to put my selfishness aside. Well, I hope this wasn't too rambly...I just think it is cool when the Lord uses the mundane (such as cleaning my bathroom) to remind me that despite my many weaknesses He does have a purpose for me and He's not finished yet.