A Humble Moment

When Steve and I took our first tour of the house we live in, my first thoughts, coming from a town house were “This house is too big to clean it on my own. I was pregnant with my second child and had an eighteenth month old little girl. Of course, I articulated this to my husband and put it right out there with signing the contract!

The generous man my husband is agreed and for all these years I have had a wonderful person clean my house twice a month. I looked forward to those two days a month when Scott would come and clean the house. If it was appropriate I would have bowed to him when he came. It was a luxury I appreciated!

Circumstances have changed and I must now clean my house. It takes two days of cleaning to get through just the upstairs and the downstairs (forget the finished basement!). This has become a family event. Everyone chips in and does their part. However, the one area I must clean on my own is the kitchen. After all it is the most “used” room and my domain. It gets the “works”, everything from the walls, cabinets, floors and windows. It’s the last room in the house and no other room when clean makes me feel so good!

Yesterday as the kids and I were cleaning Sam came in and asked me if he could mop the kitchen floor. Now, I’m all about making my kids a part and allowing them to do a job and not correct it, but NOT THE KITCHEN FLOOR! Since we weren’t doing the kitchen yet I just said” I don’t know, maybe”, hoping he would forget. Again came the question, “Mommy could I mop the floor when it comes time, I’m really good at it?” I was getting annoyed he kept asking me, I really didn’t want him doing the floor, how could he possibly do the job I know needs to be done?

Finally, it was late last night and the time was coming to mop the floor. I had the kids go up and get a bath. I figured I could quickly get the floor done while Sam was in the bath. Just my luck he was downstairs before I knew it, “Mommy, are you ready to have the floor mopped?” My last resort was to tell him how hard it was to do the floor and if he really wants to do it I would have to stand with him and make sure it’s done right. “That’s o.k. mommy, you can watch me.”

Not only did Sam do a beautiful job on the kitchen floor but he did two bathrooms, a mud room, and a large foyer. He did a better job then me!! I apologized to Sam and told him I feel just terrible. “Why would you feel terrible mommy?” “Because the floors only get mopped well twice a month and I wanted to make sure they were done right. YOU did such a great job, and I feel bad that I doubted that!”

When circumstances change in our lives and things become less comfortable then what we have known, I’ve come to learn there is always an opportunity to grow and allow God to show us things in us and others that we never knew before!

Sweet Dreams and blessings,

Debbie