I don't sweep stuff under rugs either

"that you may distinguish...

between unclean and clean"

Leviticus 10:10

We had a little mishap a few weeks ago, my boy and I.

My kids help with the housework as part of their chores, and one of the tasks they're responsible for is emptying the dishwasher, and emptying the drainer (of the dishes I hand-wash). 

Well on this particular day, I think I was headed out to the garage, and as I went out the door, I tossed a "Sweetie, will you put away the clean dishes, please?" over my shoulder as I went.

And when I came back in, I saw he had emptied the dishwasher instead of the drainer, not noticing those dishes were dirty.  I realized it almost immediately, and he and I set out to try to pull out of the cupboards the stuff that he'd put away mistakenly.   Sort of an "I know there was a couple of cereal bowls..." and "three dinner plates, right?" until we were pretty sure we'd retrieved everything.

I wasn't too worried, really.  Our dishwasher isn't all that great, so I wash the dishes pretty thoroughly before I put them in the dishwasher.  So I knew nothing was too dirty.

The hard part was the silverware.  The two of us walked over to the silverware drawer and looked down, and then at each other.  We knew there was no way to tell the clean from the dirty, and no way he was going to remember how many of each he had put away.

{Note to RWP:  here's where your counting silverware trick 

would have come in handy!}

So I just decided to wash all the silverware.  I laid out a clean towel and hand-washed everything and laid it out to dry.  But before we put it all away, I realized how dirty the silverware caddy in the drawer was.   So I pulled that out and washed it, too.

And then of course, with that out of the drawer, I realized how many crumbs had accumulated in the drawer.  Of course that needed cleaning too.

It's not the first time I've realized that the more I clean, the more cleaning I find I need to do.  There's always more to clean.

It made me think about Psalm 139 ~ "Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my thoughts."  And it reminded me why we need Him to do the spiritual "cleaning" in us.  There's too much for us to do on our own, even if we could.  Which we can't.  We need Him for the depth necessary for the completion of the job.

But it wouldn't hurt you to clean our your silverware drawer.

~ "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

    and cleanse me from my sin." ~

Psalm 51:2

~