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It began when I opened the blinds, looked down at my tile floor and knew I was going to be down on my knees for at least an hour cleaning, I mean scrubbing the floor.

I guess I need to back up and explain. Before we moved to Florida, I always wondered why people kept their blinds closed in their houses. I thought I would always keep my blinds open during the day and let the sun shine in. I mean, thats what we do in Michigan and Ohio, where we lived most of our lives.

Well, I learned fast that in the very warm South, people keep their blinds shut to keep the heat out. They are trying to keep  their house cool and doors shut because the air conditioning is on.

I assumed that when fall came and the temperature went down, I would heat my house by letting the warmth of the sun, shine in to help keep the house comfortable. After all, Christmas is in a couple of weeks, it isn’t in  the heat of the summer, so I decided to open the blinds.  Oh, no, what I saw was not a pleasant sight. The floor.

Now, Moms you know what I am about to say: your life is busy running a car pool to school and games. Doing the grocery shopping after work, keeping the washer and dryer busy with all of the laundry, not to mention time spent turning clothing inside out, looking behind, beside and tipping the clothes basket upside down looking for that other sock. Oh, I don’t want to forget the meals we need to fix to keep our families from starving. So, we don’t always have a lot of time cleaning the house, especially the floors. My favorite friends are the dry and wet swifter’s. Therefore, I do my floors in the least amount of time, as possible.

Then, the day of revealing took place on a very sunny day the end of November. I opened the blinds and behold, the floor had a dirty dry line around the base board all around the room. Yuck!! I was not a happy camper. I wanted to close the blinds and leave the house. But, I couldn’t. I knew I needed to tackle it and tackle it fast. I like a clean house.

As I scrubbed for an hour, I had a lot to think about: the saying I heard growing up: “the hurrier I go, the behinder I get”. Now, I am having to do catch up. I started to think about my house being clean but also was thinking about my life. The following is a thought: In our hurry and scurry, of living life, we may in a spiritual sense,  read quickly through our quiet devotional book and Bible. We might even skim over the lessons, and go on with the day. But if we open the blinds, illustrating it as our Bible, then we need to think on what we are reading, and apply it to our every day life. If not, we can have a tendency to build up resentment, bitterness, dislike, envy, gossip and have a misconception of our spiritual being. We may be building a layer of much needed cleansing of our soul.

I am thankful that we don’t have to wait until we get to church to confess. The Bible says we can pray anywhere, anytime and that we can go right to the throne of God, and not have to go through a preacher or a priest. Christ shed His blood for our sins and we can go directly to Him in prayer. We can ask for forgiveness, in the car, walking, resting, working, and yes, even cleaning a floor.

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.                 Hebrews 4:14-16

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.        I John 1:9

It was about an hour later, I had to hold on to something to get up off my knees, but looked down at my shiny clean floor and was so thankful I took care of cleaning it. I felt so much better. I walked over to the opened blinds to look out to see the sun and the beautiful Florida sky and oh no, oh my, the windows. Now I have to clean the windows.

That is life. We try our best, but when we stay in “The Light” of God’s Word, we have to stay right with God and others. Enjoy the light and go ahead and open your blinds so you may see.