Windex Lessons

Today I spent some time cleaning the church where I worship each Sunday.

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there is no paid ministry.
In like manner, most of the janitorial duties done at the thousands of chapels and temples throughout the world are done by assignment to the the members who benefit from those buildings rather than by someone paid to do the job.

I like that.

I believe by having a system wherein the members themselves take care of the buildings they worship in helps us to better appreciate the blessing those buildings are.

Beyond that, there are plenty of other lessons I learn every time I go to clean at the church or in the temple.

For one, the rooms I vacuum are never really all that dirty. Oh sure, there are the occasional dust bunnies or a bit of chalk dust. Sometimes the primary room has some left over glitter or cracker crumbs. But for the most part, (especially in the temple) I am vacuuming rooms that to the casual glance appear pretty clean.

That serves as a reminder to me to be vigilant in maintaining cleanliness in my heart and mind on a regular basis rather than waiting for a big bad stain.

Another thing I learn is that my service is accepted even when it is not perfect. Today I spent quite a bit of time trying to get the hard water stains off the glass in one of the entry ways. The sprinkler system splashes there and it has left sediment on one of the side panels around the door. I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. It looks better. But it still has hard water spots that I can see.

I gave it my best effort. That's all God ever expects.

Giving service is a large part of what living my religion is for me. I'm truly grateful I had the opportunity to do this work at the chapel today. Now if I can just train my heart to feel that much joy in scrubbing my own floors....