Friday, March 9, 2012

Soul Scrubbing

I did some chores last weekend, including scrubbing the kitchen and hall bathroom floors.  Not mopping, but scrubbing on my hands and knees.  I haven't done that in our house in...ok I have never done that in our house.  Those floors are each white linoleum which is a dumb color for any floor because it shows any dirt like crazy.   When we mop, it gets the floor technically clean but after some time I had noticed that the floor just wasn't lookin' as bright as I wanted.  If someone else looked at the floor, they'd probably just think it was supposed to be that dingy cream color. I mean, our house is pretty old ya know.  But I knew it was supposed to be brighter than that.  I knew it needed some scrubbing.

I thought about how I probably should have done this sooner instead of letting the lackluster floors bug me for as long as they did and even get a bit worse looking in the meantime. There were some especially rough patches where the dog bowl sits and around the edges under the lip of the cabinets that had been bugging me in particular.

As I was scooching around on the kitchen and bathroom floors with my bottle of cleaner and my bristle brush, I began to equate the dirt on our floors to "dirt" in my heart or soul.  (I know this sounds cheeseball, but bear with me.)  I compared the dingy floor that mostly only bugged me to struggles or sins in my life that mostly only are known to me (and God).  People might think our kitchen and bathroom floors are normally that off-white color and think nothing of it, just like people might think that I don't struggle with certain things that I actually do have trouble with.   I thought of some rough spots, things I struggle with that are a bigger deal, kind of like the especially yucky spots around the dog bowl and cabinet edges.  Basically I did some soul scrubbing.

Questions about floor scrubbing:

Was it fun? 
No!  It was hard work, my knees hurt, my hands got red and irritated, my sweatpants got dirty.

Did it produce results?
Yes! The floors looked grrreat afterwards.  I even asked Trent "Hey babe! Will you come in here and pretend to be excited about these clean floors??"  He obliged.

Will I do a better job of keeping up with floor scrubbing?
Yep.  Though it isn't much fun and it is hard work, it needs to be done and I felt so much better about our floors afterwards.

Now if you switch up those questions to be asking about soul scrubbing...

Was it fun?
No!  I was basically stirring up dirt in myself and making myself think about things I struggle with that I need to work on or give over to God.  That's not so fun.  It wasn't even big stuff really, and that was the point.  I was poking in nooks and crannies of my heart to clean out the dust bunnies and ground in dirt.

Did it produce results?
Yes!  I ended up with a mental list of little things I want to try to be better about or worries to hand over to God.  Hopefully I can follow through and have a more shiny feeling soul, even if it's only me that is aware of it.

Will I do a better job of keeping up with soul scrubbing?
Yep. Now that I have scrubbed up some things, I want to continue to honor my Lord by regularly checking in on these items.  I want to be like the white pom pom on the last finger of the Gospel Fuzzies glove and the verse of the song that says "White means I'm washed cleeeean, white means I'm washed cleeean."  Anyone? Anyone?  Are the Gospel Fuzzies just another part of my life unique to my "special childhood" that make people look at me funny, including my husband?  :-(

1 Corinthians 6:11
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 

How is your soul today?  Does it need some scrubbing?


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