I’m pretty spoiled. I have many of the modern conveniences. I even have a dishwasher; her name is Tammie. Sometimes she needs to be prodded to get the dishes done.
Actually I have a real dishwasher. It sits there next to the fridge and taunts me. She stopped working about a year ago and I just can’t convince myself to shell out my hard earned bucks to replace her.
So, I wash dishes the old fashioned way. Truth is I think there’s something soothing about washing dishes. I came up with this revelation when I worked at Baskin-Robbins years ago. After a busy day it was nice to fill the sink with hot water and suds and wash the grime of the day away and put things in order.
When I wash dishes I often think of my grandmothers. Both hardworking women that helped shape my life. My paternal grandmother long ago taught me that hot water grew your suds and cold water killed them. That little nugget rocked my teenage world.
My maternal grandmother is a farmer’s wife. She fed and cleaned up after a family of 14 and always looked for ways to save money. Her water comes from a cistern and it is precious. From her I learned that you don’t need to start with a sink full to the brim to still get your dishes clean.
Believe it or not, I also think of my brother during my one-on-one time with my dinnerware. When we were growing up we had to clean up after dinner. Every night it was fighting over who was going to wash and who was going to dry. But it was often an adventure. There was the time we took a lit candle into the kitchen and almost set the cabinets on fire. And, I will never live down my comment, “Stop it Tommy, you’re getting the dishes too wet!”
Washing dishes is just one of those things of life. Some may wonder why I’m blogging about such a mundane thing. Well, while cleaning up the kitchen recently this verse ran through my head…
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men ~Colossians 3:23
Really, that’s what life is all about, in the everyday tasks (even dish washing) we are to work for the Lord.
Collecting Ebenezers as I travel through life. "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” 1 Samuel 7:12
Reminds me of Helen keller's words:
ReplyDeleteI long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble