Horrible Housekeeper Turned Custodian by Stephanie Nickel
Are you like me? Are household chores w-a-y down on your To Do list?
To tell you how far down they’ve been on mine . . . At one point I regularly added to one of my early blogs called “Confessions of a Horrible Housekeeper.”
Now I don’t believe the old adage that says, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Far from it! In fact, my thinking goes more along these lines: “Cleanliness is next to impossible.” Years ago I coined my own phrase: A place for everything and nothing in its place.
Cleanliness, next to impossible?
Although my hubby and I have begun to declutter and redecorate, there is still much to be done around our home. (You can accumulate a lot of unneeded stuff in three decades.)
My house will likely never be immaculate. The way I see it, that’s fine—as long as my time is spent doing things that are actually more pressing, writing promised guest posts for example.
But if I simply leave things undone because “I don’t wanna do them,” then it’s time for an attitude adjustment—and probably time to get off my backside.
Time to get up and at ’em.
If you’re a Christian, like I am, God never ceases to amaze and surprise. And boy, did He have a surprise in store for me!
When offered the position of church custodian, my husband agreed to take it on. He wasn’t sure how he was going to get everything done with his full-time job and other responsibilities, but he was willing to give it a try.
And then God gave me an idea: Offer to help. It’s evidence that the Lord has been at work in me, seeing as I didn’t resist the suggestion. But to be honest, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the time I’d spend cleaning, but at least I didn’t sulk—not even inwardly.
Knowing my attitude still needed some fine tuning, I asked God to help me see this as a ministry opportunity, a privilege. And He answered my prayer. Only He could do that. He is so faithful!
And do you know something? I’m actually enjoying giving attention to detail. There really is a sense of satisfaction in a job well done.
And wow! Let me tell you . . . it’s quite a workout. I haven’t exercised the muscles in my back this much in . . . well, probably in forever.
God is in the business of redeeming us. And this includes giving us opportunities to do new things—things we never imagined we could enjoy.
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Steph Beth Nickel is an author, a freelance editor and writer, a labour doula, and a former personal trainer. She’d love to connect with you on Facebook or Twitter, on her website or blog.