Reason #498
I love having a clean house, and I love having painted nails. I do not, however, enjoy cleaning the house or painting my nails. The joys of being a working class girl means you get to do these things for yourself. I would love to have someone come clean my house once a week and paint my nails every other week, but those are little luxuries reserved for special occasions. I suppose what I'm trying to say here is that I like the outcome but I don't like the work. Because getting to the desired outcomes takes time, it's really not much fun, and the truth is, it doesn't stay like that forever.
I "deep cleaned" the house today. I try, for the most part, to keep it in order so that cleaning isn't such a chore, but after moving and rearranging the whole place, it was dirty. We have done so much work on the house over the past 2 weeks that the last thing I wanted to do was spend my Saturday cleaning it. But, it wasn't going to clean itself and the more I cleaned, the more I realized how dirty it was. Dust and dirt was everywhere, cobwebs were underneath the cabinets, behind every door, and gracing every corner, and a thick layer of hairspray covered the bathroom. I vacuumed forever, dusted forever, and scrubbed the bathroom countertop with all my might. After a few hours, the place looked pretty good. Not long after we came home from running errands, I found that grass had already snuck itself back into the house. Seriously, all that work and I found myself cleaning once again.
And so I finally took a shower. I got out and decided I would paint my nails. They, too, are about two weeks overdue and I have shamefully sported chipped polish for far too long. I polished, I unpolished, and I polished some more. After the second time of starting over on my fingernails, I finally got it right... or good enough. And so I waited a bit for them to dry, sat down to start typing once I felt it was safe, and as I pulled my computer out of the drawer, I bumped the edge and messed up my thumbnail. Happens every time.
I think this happens with life, too. We just want to get to the end result and skip the work getting there. Better yet, let someone else do the work. Because we work and work and we give it our all, and just when we think we've achieved the desired outcome, you find grass in your floor and you mess up your nails. That's just how things seem to go. And so it's terribly frustrating. It's annoying, it's not fun, and it's far from encouraging. Yet it's the work and practice the teaches us. Because the more often I clean my house, the faster I become and the less I have to spend a whole day doing it. And the more I paint my nails, the better I get and the less mistakes I make. And life requires work. None of get out of it easy, even when we try. Yet, by avoiding the work you need to do, you just end up making more work for yourself. And so even though it's not fun, even though it's not the ideal way to spend your time, it's worth it and sometimes you just have to. And aren't you grateful we serve a God who is willing to work, too? A God who will do whatever He has to, for as long as He has to, to make sure we get there. A God who doesn't give up even though He, too, might not always feel like doing all the work that may be required. I am! And I am thankful that in the end, all the work was done for me anyway. So what if I have grass in the floor and I chip my nail polish? Well, I know how to take care of it and so I just do what I know to do and I let Him teach me along the way.
#498 - Because of a God who is willing to work on me and with me for as long as it takes.
"Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty." - Proverbs 21:5
I "deep cleaned" the house today. I try, for the most part, to keep it in order so that cleaning isn't such a chore, but after moving and rearranging the whole place, it was dirty. We have done so much work on the house over the past 2 weeks that the last thing I wanted to do was spend my Saturday cleaning it. But, it wasn't going to clean itself and the more I cleaned, the more I realized how dirty it was. Dust and dirt was everywhere, cobwebs were underneath the cabinets, behind every door, and gracing every corner, and a thick layer of hairspray covered the bathroom. I vacuumed forever, dusted forever, and scrubbed the bathroom countertop with all my might. After a few hours, the place looked pretty good. Not long after we came home from running errands, I found that grass had already snuck itself back into the house. Seriously, all that work and I found myself cleaning once again.
And so I finally took a shower. I got out and decided I would paint my nails. They, too, are about two weeks overdue and I have shamefully sported chipped polish for far too long. I polished, I unpolished, and I polished some more. After the second time of starting over on my fingernails, I finally got it right... or good enough. And so I waited a bit for them to dry, sat down to start typing once I felt it was safe, and as I pulled my computer out of the drawer, I bumped the edge and messed up my thumbnail. Happens every time.
I think this happens with life, too. We just want to get to the end result and skip the work getting there. Better yet, let someone else do the work. Because we work and work and we give it our all, and just when we think we've achieved the desired outcome, you find grass in your floor and you mess up your nails. That's just how things seem to go. And so it's terribly frustrating. It's annoying, it's not fun, and it's far from encouraging. Yet it's the work and practice the teaches us. Because the more often I clean my house, the faster I become and the less I have to spend a whole day doing it. And the more I paint my nails, the better I get and the less mistakes I make. And life requires work. None of get out of it easy, even when we try. Yet, by avoiding the work you need to do, you just end up making more work for yourself. And so even though it's not fun, even though it's not the ideal way to spend your time, it's worth it and sometimes you just have to. And aren't you grateful we serve a God who is willing to work, too? A God who will do whatever He has to, for as long as He has to, to make sure we get there. A God who doesn't give up even though He, too, might not always feel like doing all the work that may be required. I am! And I am thankful that in the end, all the work was done for me anyway. So what if I have grass in the floor and I chip my nail polish? Well, I know how to take care of it and so I just do what I know to do and I let Him teach me along the way.
#498 - Because of a God who is willing to work on me and with me for as long as it takes.
"Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty." - Proverbs 21:5
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