Motivations

Yesterday I found myself in a unique situation:  The kitchen needed cleaning up, which is not so unique, but I had TIME to give it a thorough cleaning, which is very unique.  The thing is, I didn’t feel like cleaning at all.  And I didn’t have a good excuse to not clean … I had already spent time enjoying some nice and well-deserved me-time. I was simply being lazy. 

I tried to find some sort of motivation to clean the house.  My usual motivators (health, order, sanity, expectant company), weren’t working for me.  Grades have always been a good motivator for me.  So I pretended that someone was grading my efforts for keeping on top of the house.  I decided that my efforts would have received an F and the state of my kitchen would have received a C-.  This gave me some push to start cleaning.  But then my interest in cleaning started fading when I started thinking about who doing the grading:  Me.  I didn’t really care about what I was thinking at that moment.  I didn’t care what anybody would have thought.

What finally pushed me to take advantage of the time I had to clean was imagining how I would have felt if Jesus walked into the house at that moment.  I would have been totally embarrassed.  On any other day, on a day where I simply didn’t have the time to clean, I think Jesus would have been understanding.  But on a day where I had the time, I really should have tried to make my home the best it could be, if not for myself, for Him … to allow Him to be there, to in turn uplift me and my family.

I hope I’m not using the image of Jesus’ presence too tritely, but this was a spiritual realization for me.  I found myself praying for the extra help I needed and I felt an answer to my prayer.  I’m thankful that Heavenly Father saw fit to answer my prayer in this little thing.  I’m thankful for the lesson I learned that I should try my best to make my home a place where the Spirit can be and where I can feel peace.  I’m also thankful for the reassurance I received that it’s okay that my house isn’t anywhere close to perfect on most days … that other things often taken precedence over having the perfect house, but that I should do my best when I can offer it.