Cleaning the Floors

I like having guests over.  I really, REALLY enjoy hospitality fellowship.  I think there is something very special about opening our homes to others.  It opens the path to a deeper communion and friendship.  I wish I could entertain all the time!  I also like it because, nothing cleans the house better than the idea of having people visiting.

Am I right? or Am I right?

My house has been a horrendous mess during the first two months of the year.  The floor has been particularly unbearable.  Those pesky little black ice-melting pebble-like particles get everywhere... EVERYWHERE!!!!  I hate it!!!!  And my kids just don't get it..."take your shoes off by the door and leave them on the rug!" I say every day.  But, they don't care.  Apparently boys don't have any nerve endings on the bottom of their feet so they don't feel the darn miniature rocks piercing through their skin.  AH, but I believe, yesterday, I found the secret of keeping a clean floor: making them clean it!

Yes, yesterday we had the blessing of having guests over...so, obviously, panic struck me.  There was no way I could clean the house by myself, so I delegated.  Dylan got the floors.  It was a joy to see him struggle! (is that wrong of me to say?) He was so annoyed! Ha, ha!!! I can't write this without laughing!  I should have recorded it.  He got so irritated every time the dog or Grant would walk by, I had to tell him to chill!  He was actually doing feet inspections afterwards to make sure everyone was safe to walk on his clean floors...apparently Grant's feet didn't pass the quality control test because he came over to complain about it. 

I can't express how delightful it was to witness such an experience.  Today, as I took my first steps on the still clean floors, I was overcome by joy...but I also began to think about how that must be a pale, but perhaps accurate depiction of the joy they experience in the heavenly realms when a child of God finally learns a lesson. 

Down here, we dread it.  However, like I tell my students, "if you are not struggling, you are not learning!"  The best and most enduring lessons are learned through the fiercest of the struggles.  We certainly don't appreciate it while in the middle of the trial.  We fear it and try to avoid it; but the hope of a good lesson well learned is worth the test. 

Our Heavenly Father knows that the secret to helping us "clean" our spiritual houses so we can get rid of the pesky dirt that so easily and quickly threatens to cover us is to let us experience the arduous cleaning process.  He knows we will struggle, and thankfully, since He is full of Mercy, Compassion and Love, unlike me, He doesn't go into His room to secretly laugh at our wrestling.  Instead, He is with us, often doing the sweeping, mopping and vacuuming Himself, while we lie on the ground too spent and too weak to even look up and realize that He is taking onto Himself the hard work that should belong to us. 

Our guests came and we had a wonderful time! I hope :)  We certainly did! And, although we didn't talk about the clean floors or even thought about them...I trust the lesson was learned and that the joy of clean floors is a clear reminder of the beauty that comes from the struggle, not only because that's how we best learn, but because hopefully I finally might have gotten rid of the pesky ice-melting pebbles I hate so much!