Watch That First Step

Proverbs 11:1 A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.

When I first got married I was determined to make my new home perfect. Back then the only way I could think of to do that was to clean and clean and clean and clean. I look back now on those first few years and it is pretty much all I remember doing. I literally became obsessed with it – vacuuming and dusting 2 or 3 times a day, not to mention everything else I could find to clean. It really was very pathetic.

It all came to a screeching halt one afternoon though. I had run out of things to clean that day and was desperately searching for something. I looked at our long hallway floor and decided it wasn’t shiny enough. So, after my baby was down for his nap I got out a cleaning towel and got to work on that floor. It took me about 2 hours but by the time I was done that floor it was the shiniest thing you would ever see.

Jeff got home from work a little bit later and took his work boots off and started down the hall to put them away. He took one step on the hall floor (in his socks) and slid the rest of the way down ~ bumping walls and finally ending up on his behind at the other end of the hallway. When he got up he was NOT happy. (That was the day I found out that its not a good idea to shine the floor with Pledge furniture polish!!)

I said all that to say this. There was a false balance in my home. I had become so obsessed with cleaning that our home was not a delight any more. Jeff wasn’t happy (especially that day) because all I ever did was clean and made him feel guilty if things got messed up and I wasn’t happy either – because my focus wasn’t right.

I had to learn that a "perfectly" spotless house was not what made our HOME. I had to find a balance between cleaning and living. As I found that balance, our home became a delightful place to be. We had fun and loved being there and loved being together.

Cleaning may not be where your balance is off, but many times if you take time to look you will find that something in your life is out of balance and stealing the joy in your life the God wants you to have. Take time today to see that the scales are even ~ that you don’t have something out of balance (honestly, too much of a good thing can become bad!!)

Jeff and I laugh about my Pledge hallway now, by the way, but only because we’ve got a balance and a delightful home.