Today is cleaning day at my house. Good times! Believe it or not, I have some of my best conversations with God when I’m doing household chores. Weird right? A few years ago, when I was scrubbing the toilet, (one of my least favorite jobs), it struck me that I really should be thankful that I had a toilet to clean. Not everyone has toilets or even running water.
The World Health Organization reports that 1.1 billion people have inadequate access to water, (ie: no toilets, showers, sinks, not to mention modern luxuries like washing machines and dishwashers). That’s a lot of people. It kind of makes me want to hang my head for complaining about cleaning a toilet. If these people don’t have water, you know they don’t have electricity. I remind myself of this fact when I’m vacuuming or ironing.
Most of us take our modern conveniences and luxuries for granted and to be fair, we really don’t know any differently, but it wasn’t that long ago that the majority of people didn’t have dishwashers and washing machines not to mention coffee makers and computers. My dad remembers his family’s first light bulb and my mom (if pressed), will admit to having used an outhouse. We’ve come a really long way in a relatively short amount of time and living in western culture gives us even more luxuries. We should be a very thankful people. But are we?
Thankfulness is definitely learned. How many times have you heard a mother tell a child when they are given something, “What do you say?” I still remind my twelve year old to thank the parents of whichever friend he has spent the day with. Being thankful doesn’t seem to be a natural state for us. In the Bible, when the Israelites had seen all of those plagues and the Red Sea parted, they still complained about nothing to eat and then they complained about lack of water. Although God generously provided these things , the scripture never says they were thankful.
Paul tells us that we should be thankful in all circumstances in Thessalonians 5:18. Does this mean I should be thankful when I’m scrubbing tubs and toilets. Yes, I think it does. I read a book recently called the 4:8 Principle, by Tommy Newberry. The book is based on Philippians 4:8 and it was life changing for me. When you really start to list all you have to be thankful for, you find there are usually way more pluses than minuses. God is a genius with accounting. I’m glad I get to work for him.
Thankfulness is a state of mind and one we can all learn. I remind myself of this when I’m cleaning dinner dishes. If there were dinner dishes, then there was dinner. I give thanks for food to eat. Try to make a list of your many blessings. You will be surprised and the next time you have to do something unpleasant like cutting the grass, make a mental list of what you have to be thankful for like: that you have a mower, that you have a yard, that you have arms and legs to push a mower (or enough money to have bought your riding one), that we are out of drought… This is another one of those endless lists, yet another reason to be thankful because God is so generous. So let’s all say thanks and watch for all of the blessings that surround us.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂
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