This morning as I was doing last night's dinner dishes, I was reminded of a memory from years ago. I don't remember how old McKay was at the time, but I do remember that he was pretty little. My sister was visiting at my house and she asked McKay where I keep our cups. (I think it was cups.) McKay's reply was very indicative of how our household runs. He told her that we keep them in the dishwasher. My sister thought this was hilarious and as I remembered it this morning I do admit that I laughed out loud. McKay's words mirrored exactly what happens in our house. He understood that most if not all of the dishes in our house are either dirty, or clean in the dishwasher not put away. I do not fully utilize the storage space that our kitchen cupboards offer, so why do I have them?
As I write this, I am having an epiphany. This is a pattern in my life that I want to change. I want to create a new pattern. I want my home to be beautiful and inviting. I want the Lord's spirit to feel comfortable dwelling here in my home. I realize now that I only clean my house when it is dirty, as opposed to keeping my home clean. There is a difference. I think of the temple. (The temple is a place of great symbolic importance in my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.) It is beautiful, inviting, clean, and everything in it has a purpose. The purpose of my kitchen cupboards is to store my clean dishes. The purpose of my dishwasher is to clean my dirty dishes. The purpose of my sink and counter is to prepare food or as a work space. It is not a storage compartment for dirty dishes. I could go on and on, but you and I get the point.
Now, a plug for math. Math is all about patterns and symbols. I didn't get it in my younger years. Math teaches me how to recognize patterns and symbols in my life. That makes all the difference to me. After all these years, I finally get the significance and purpose for math. Now to inspire my children. That will be the fun part.
3 comments:
I can totally relate to my clean dishes being in the dishwasher and my dirty dishes sometimes being "stored" in the sink! Hee hee...that being said, I cut myself slack because, unlike the temple, I have 6 kids running around getting into things and making messes (and a husband, too). : )
Cynthia
I like your thoughts on Math. You should read my grandpa's blog (he did a couple months of posts before he died)--he talks a lot about the order of the universe and things. Very interesting.
As far as the house goes--I used to have these same thoughts--I want to have my house feel like the temple: inviting, clean, beautiful. And it's true, I do. And I love a clean house. But you know what I like more than a clean house? A house that feels lived in and comfortable. (Part of that IS keeping cups where people can find them, most of the time.) I'd rather have dirty carpet and let people keep shoes on if they'd like, and have toys strewn about sometimes, if that means the kids are playing and having a good time. I think there is a balance. But there is something to how our homes feel when everything is orderly!
I love it! Who doesn't relate to that, but that is how it goes when life is busy.
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