There is a sign hanging outside my front door. It reads as follows: "If you came to see me, come any time. If you came to see my house, make an appointment." Now don't get me wrong, I like having a clean house, but I hate actually cleaning and de-cluttering. I mean I absolutely loathe it. One of the reasons is because I'm a tad OCD about some of the physical aspects. For instance, I hate it when water drips on me (especially if I'm wearing flip flops or barefoot) and I especially hate when my hands are wet and/or dirty and then they drip all over me, I want to just jump out of my skin. It's even worse when there's not a towel handy, it seriously makes me start to go a little psychotic. It's just not my thing. Need someone to create something artsy for you from scratch? I'm your girl. Need someone to give an impromptu speech or memorize a song and perform it? Call on me. Need something organized? Run far, far away from me.
So, besides being a little OCD (no offense to anyone who suffers from real OCD), why do I hate it so much? Mainly because I'm so bad at it. My brain just does not function in an organizational way, which has proven to be extremely frustrating throughout my life. Asking me to organize a stack of books or a bunch of files incites the type of horror in me that most people feel when they're asked to speak in front of a large group of people (How?! By color? Title? Author?? Height?? Thickness??? Gah!!!). Nevertheless, it's simply not an option to NOT clean my house, especially as a stay-at-home mom, so I've started searching for ways to help me get past the oogy-ness and embrace my inner June Cleaver. I started by thinking about what I'd rather be doing. In all honesty, I'd rather be focusing on some spiritual matter or a ministry issue and grappling with that instead....how do I incorporate that desire into cleaning? Suddenly, I had an idea. What if I could change my thinking to regard cleaning as something positive rather than negative...what if I could treat cleaning as I've treated other struggles in my life - as a spiritual discipline? As it turns out, this is not a new idea.
In Benedictine monasteries, each monk is required to perform kitchen duty on a regular basis. The reason for this is to invoke a sense of servant hood and humility in and to their fellow brothers. This strikes a chord with me since my husband's "love language" is acts of service. In other words, washing his car means way more than buying him that new Rolex. Furthermore, we have scriptures like Colossians 3:23 (among various other passages) that say things like this:
" Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters."
So, in an effort to become more like Jesus and serve my family in humility and thankfulness, I will be practicing my various household tasks as a spiritual discipline, committing time each day until it becomes a habit. I have discovered that once I get started on a task, it's not hard to finish, as long as I don't allow myself to become distracted. Yikes! That's a hard one... I also figured putting on my blog would help keep me accountable.
That being said, tell me your opinion: would you rather sing a solo in church or clean your toilet?
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