cleaning...a never-ending job

I spent the day yesterday cleaning all of those spots that just don't get cleaned often enough, well at least not in my house. I am not very good at staying on top of dusting. Everytime I do it I wonder why it is not something that I do every week. But seriously, who dusts their ceiling fans every week. Okay, don't answer that because you probably do, but I don't. As I was cleaning the molding around all the doorways and noticing all of the dirty and sticky fingers that have so lovingly left their mark, I was thinking about how amazing it is how dirty things get so quickly when left alone. There are some messes that are more obvious and get much more of my attention, for example, a sink full of dishes. But for some reason, the messes that are not as noticeable and the dust webs that are not as obtrusive, get overlooked way too often at my house. It just feels so good today to know that the fridge is cleaned out, the shelves and pictures are dusted, and the clothes are organized in their drawers. To somebody else, my house may look just as clean as it did last week when I cleaned it, but really it is on a whole new level of clean.

Isn't that just the way it is with who we are. Every so often it is good to dust out the cobwebs in our own life. To have a self-inventory and decide what things need to be worked on, what things need to go, and what things need to be repented of. I started doing this yesterday and I realized that lately I have started to let a couple little things in that I really shouldn't. I think I have been a lot more judgemental and cynical lately and a little less merciful and meek....those are just to name a few of the things that I thought of.

I find it very interesting, and frustrating, that almost every single job that I do as a mother is undone within a minute/day/week. If things are not kept up, fixed, or redone each day, chaos follows and the whole flow of our home is totally thrown off. This is so symbolic of our spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional well being. When I am not daily reading my scriptures, I am not as close to the spirit, which means that my intentions aren't as good and my thoughts aren't as pure. When I am not regularly and consistently exercising, I am not as happy. When I eat too much junk for too many days, I feel horribly. When I am not doing frequent service, I find myself less grateful and more self-consumed.

It is just in our natures, when we do not frequently take stock, throw out, repent and recommit, life tends to get bad and things that may not be obvious to everyone, will gradually become a bigger issue and pretty soon we will wonder what happened and how we got where we are. I have seen this very thing happen to a close friend of mine. Luckily they were able to make changes before things got too bad, but it was a great lesson to me. One that I will never forget.

So here is to clean homes, clean hands and clean hearts....may we never stop seeking for each of them.