I am fortunate to have a woman come and clean my house once every two weeks.
The cleaning done by this capable and careful woman has many benefits. I will focus upon only one.
Knowing she is coming on Saturday morning forces me to pick up and put away clutter before she arrives.
I can’t expect her to clean my house if clothes, papers, toys, dishes, etc. are in her way. She does not know where these things are supposed to be stored, so I store them before she arrives.
This reminds me of an episode of one of my favorite television sitcoms, The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Rob (Dick Van Dyke) and Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) Petrie, as you may remember, lived in New Rochelle, New York.
This funny and attractive TV couple enjoyed an upper-middle-class existence in the early 1960s.
In one episode, Laura decides she needs to hire a maid.
In their inimitable way, Rob and Laura spend days cleaning, picking up, and otherwise preparing for the arrival of the maid. They would be embarrassed to allow the woman to see the usual untidy condition of their home.
At one point, Rob looks around at the immaculate state of their house and says, “We never needed a maid. We just needed the threat of a maid.”
So, the knowledge that a cleaning woman is coming forces me to tidy my cluttered house.
As unlikely as it may sound, pondering this situation led me to make a spiritual comparison.
Many people recognize a need for God, but they feel they must first clean up their lives.
They cannot, they think, approach God in the sinful condition in which they currently exist.
They are, in a sense, correct.
A holy God cannot tolerate the presence of sin. Thus, our sin must be removed before we can enjoy a relationship with Him.
But we, as mere mortals, cannot achieve spiritual purity on our own power.
We need Jesus to do that for us.
Jesus did not come to earth to save cleaned-up people.
He came to save sinners.
Sinners come to Jesus. He cleans them up, keeps cleaning them up, and makes them presentable to God.
Here is my suggestion to anyone who recognizes a need for God but doesn’t know where to go to get started.
Go to church.
Avoid cults and cultlike groups. (Some cults have the word church in their names.)
Ask a churchgoing friend to take you to church with him or her. Find a church that preaches Jesus and His lovely grace.
I came across this the other day and want to share it with you. I don’t know the author, and the piece has no title.
I’m calling it Go to Church Anyway.
Warning: The piece contains grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. (Groan)
The Happy Geranium 
Ha ha, that made me smile. The ‘cleaning up before the maid arrives’ thing is so me. I would definately do that! Thanks for the spiritual reminder too. xx
Thank you, Sharon, for the comment and for all the encouragement you send along in your blog posts! Keep it up!
The weather’s beautiful here today and I am so grateful for it. But WordPress is being naughty so I couldn’t log into my account nor change my password. It is fixed now but I thought it would be better to catch up on some blogging friends than sit out in the heat and get all hot n bothered. I’m really enjoying your posts. xxx
WordPress can make me so angry! I’m not computer savvy anyway, and when I must learn a new way to do something I’ve always done the old way, my blood pressure rises and I want to scream. Enjoy the beautiful weather. I know you don’t get a lot of that where you live, so make the most of it, my friend across the pond! Thank you for your nice comments. I know YOU KNOW how hard it is to give birth to a new blog post!
Yes I do! And I feel exactly the same way as you when things don’t work, so you have my deepest sympathy! But your blog looks great so I’m happy you have managed to navigate around the problems. The most frustrating thing was that yesterday I couldn’t log in, and I couldnt reset my password and when I tried to contact WordPress, it said I had to log in first! I nearly threw something heavy out the window 😂.
Sharon, I’ve enjoyed this back-and-forth with you today. I wish you lived next door to me! Then we could visit often, and in person! Good luck with your drying tablecloth, your WordPress account, and everything else!
Ah yes, neughbours…that would be lovely! I am grateful for technology and thay despite our physical distance, we can catch-up and encourage one another at any time. So I guess we are online neighbours? ☺️
Yes, online neighbors (neighbours) and definitely online friends, and Christian sisters! Thank you, Sharon!
I had maid services after our fourth baby, Tavia, was born. And I very much remember getting the house “prepared” for the maid. Such a good spiritual application, Debbie. Thank you for sharing! I really appreciate the extra written advice from an unknown writer–that’s a great message for all of us.
Thank you, Becky. I used to hear people say, “If I ever darkened the door of a church, the roof would probably fall in.” That is not true, of course. It breaks my heart to know people avoid going to church thinking they’re not “good enough.” We Christians need to emphasize that we, on our own efforts, are not good at all. We all rely on Jesus’s goodness to make us acceptable to God. Thank you for reading and commenting.