giving grace

Well, here goes the entry for today.  I think I'm on the every-other-day plan when it comes to a new blog post.  Frankly, I'm surpised that I find time to do even this much.  Which brings me to today's topic - the clealiness of my house.  I decided that today was a cleaning day - vaccumed, dusted, mopped the kitchen floor.  What's absolutely frustrating about doing all this cleaning is the knowledge that, in about two hours, it will all be undone.  I handle it, the messes, a lot better than I used to.  My standard of clean was much different before I was married and had a family.  My weekly routine involved dusting things that didn't necessarily need it, vaccuming every carpeted floor, and mopping the kitchen and bathroom  floors 'til they were sparkling.   Having roommates helped tame my obsessive side.  I learned to settle with less than perfect.  But, I was still unprepared for what marriage would bring.  My husband's idea of sweeping the kitchen floor was to "skate" in socks back and forth across it, 'til it was mostly clean.  Needless to say, that was NOT okay with me.  I remember the biggest arguments we had when we first married centered around the cleanliness of the house.  My husband and I have learned to live with each other's eccentricities.  He is still not the neatest person in the house, and I still tend to get crazy when I clean.  But we've learned to give each other a little grace when it comes to our flaws. 

It's nice to live in grace - isn't it?  I used to be someone  who didn't give much grace to other people .  I was pretty judgmental.   Some of the things I remember being critical about are the very things that I do today.  For instance, I used to look down on my mom because I wondered how she could let our house get so messy.  As I step over toys, stare at dust inches thick, and walk into a bathroom that smells like a little boy pottied everywhere but in the toilet, I find myself laughing at that arrogant girl who so easliy judged her mother; a mother who was raising three children and working a part-time job.  The older I get, the more I realize that you truly don't understand a person's life until you "walk around in their shoes" for a season.  It was a painful lesson to learn - to stop being so judgmental of people.  But I'm glad I learned it.  I find that the more grace I give, the more I seem to receive.

Matthew 7:1  "Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."