Serving Others

Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Laundry at my house is a never ending job. Sometimes I think that when one of us throws a garment into the dirty clothes hamper that it breeds and multiplies. Except for socks, which seem to disappear one at a time, and never from the same pair. This would be why I have a sock basket that is about half full of socks that don't have a mate.

Dishes are almost as bad. I can cook a meal, and load the dishwasher only to return 5 minutes later to find a sinkful of dirty dishes and there's no one at home but me.

I could go through my house and write forever....dust balls that hide from the furniture polish, the cookie crumbs on the carpet that the vacuum cleaner couldn't seem to suck up, though it managed to get the tassel on the throw pillow from 2 feet away.

Today I took a cleaning day. I caught up on all the laundry, cleaned bathrooms, swept, mopped, vacuumed, starched and ironed Mike's shirts for next week, scrubbed counters....and now I just want to throw up my hands and scream. Not "Calgon...take me away" like the commercials from the 1980's....but "Michael...hire me a maid!"
At 11:00 tonight, I finally sat down...just as everyone else was going to bed. I was tired and frustrated. I opened up my e-mail...

And got chewed out by a dear friend...because of a phone call that I forgot to make earlier in the week. At first, I was livid that she would say those things to me. She was a grown woman...why couldn't she pick up the phone and make the call herself? "Because you promised you would".... Now, I don't know about you...but when I'm tired and frustrated, the last thing I want is for the Holy Spirit to talk to me. Especially if I've done something wrong...and I know it. I tend to start talking back, and it's usually not very pretty.

"Don't know why someone else couldn't do that job. And these two around here, they knew I was finishing up the ironing, didn't they hear the dryer quit? Would it kill them to take out the towels and fold them? Do I look like their maid? And who does she think she is telling me I'm irresponsible. Just look at all the things I've done for her and she doesn't appreciate any of them. I think I'll just sit down and do nothing and let someone wait on ME for a change." Ever felt like that?

But then God, in his infinate mercy, pointed me to the 10th chapter of Mark and gently reminded me that each of us was put here to serve others. It is up to me to do it with a glad heart, instead of a grudging one.