“Do everything without complaining and arguing.”  (Philippians 2:14)  Surely everything can’t include laundry and the dishes and cleaning toilets can it?

This morning as I was doing laundry, which I call my nemesis, I was also reading the Bible.  I’m still reading Philippians (I’m reading the whole book of Philippians… all 5 pages everyday).  Anyway as I was folding laundry and putting wet clothes in the dryer, my self talk went something like this, “I hate laundry, why do we have so many clothes, this job never ends, we should be nudists, I can’t stand picking dirty clothes up off the floor, I hate my washer, ugh – I forgot to check the pockets first, what exactly is laundering money…”  and on and on.  Did you notice all that complaining?

Then when the clothes from the dryer were folded, the wet ones from the washer put into the dryer and a new load put into the washer, I sat down with my coffee cup and Bible and began reading Philippians again.  “…Do everything without complaining and arguing…”  Uh oh!  It was 9:00 in the morning and I already had way too much complaining.  I tried to justify it… but I truly hate laundry… at least I’m doing it… “Do EVERYTHING without complaining”

Alright God, I get it… but you are truly going to have to give me the desire and the power to do what pleases you here (Philippians 2:13 – see yesterday’s post on deodorant to learn more about that.) because I get really grumpy and tend to yell at my kids when I do housework.   So as it was time to do more folding and loading, I pressed on to do so without complaining.

That quiet voice whispered in my head and heart, “Be thankful.”  Ok, I’ll try.  So this time as I was folding the laundry my self talk went something like this, “Thank you God that we have so many great clothes to wear, thank you for Jeff’s co-worker who gave us these great hand-me-downs for Jarrod, thank you for Jeff’s mom who gave Bryan this shirt, thank you for my mom’s co-worker who gave me all her clothes that are too big for her now, thank you that this shirt is too big for me now, thank you for my boys who look so cute in these clothes…”

And then when I was starting and stopping the washer (right now our pipes are slow and the washer drains too fast for them, so I have to stop it and let the pipes clear and then start it again several times in each rinse cycle.  We need to get a plumber in to take care of it, but we are waiting until we have the money for it) instead of grumbling my self talk included, “Thank you that I don’t have to walk down to a river to wash clothes, but that I have a washer right in my house.”  And you know what?  I actually felt more joyful while doing the laundry!

So that’s my tip of the day… if you want to do everything (including all your housework) without complaining, try thanking God instead.  I think next time I clean the toilet I’ll try to remember to thank God for the indoor plumbing!

I am not a very good housekeeper.  If I had hired myself, I’d have to fire me.  But every once in awhile I find a good trick that I like to pass on.  This week I found one.

I was reading a “Biblezine” that had a calendar inside it.  For June one of the dates said to clean out your microwave today and offered a trick to clean it.  My microwave was disgusting – too much reheating of food and too little wiping it down afterwards.  I know that if I would regularly clean it I wouldn’t need a trick to get it clean.  But I don’t so I did.  And it worked perfectly!

Here’s what you do (for those microwave slobs like me):

1. Take a small bowl of water.  Squirt some fresh lemon juice in it.  (I didn’t have fresh so I used a squirt of bottled lemon juice)
2. Cook it in the microwave for 3 minutes.
3. Leave it in the microwave for 5 minutes – DO NOT OPEN MICROWAVE until after the 5 minutes.
4. Open microwave take a paper towel or rag and easily wipe off all that grime that was caked on.

My microwave hasn’t been so clean since I bought it.  Except for the pealing of the paint inside of it from when I tried to clean it with a cleaner that stripped the paint.  If only I knew the lemon water trick back then!

When I sat down to write, this was all I was planning on including.  But while typing, I thought about yesterday’s whistle post and how the water in the microwave is another analogy of Christ.  Whenever I’ve tried to clean out that microwave, I couldn’t get all the grime off.  But when I let the steam from the water do the work, it easily came clean.  I couldn’t do it on my own.  That bowl of water is like Christ.  We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us – but we have to let Him do the work.  Don’t open the microwave too soon!