A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart. Luke 6:45 (NLT)
I left work on Friday fully intending to rest this weekend. I even cancelled husbands and my long standing date night complaining I was too exhausted to enjoy dining out. I’ve been having trouble sleeping. It is partly this season of my life and partly some things I am fretting about at work. I have resorted to taking Zyrtec which leaves me foggy in the mornings. On Saturday morning, I intended to sleep late. Husband went to church to cook breakfast for our local High School football team. When he left, Lucy would not leave me alone so I got up to let her out and feed the horses. Then, went back to bed and slept for another hour and a half only waking up when husband came back home after cooking breakfast for one hundred people. I instantly felt like a slug, jumped up and started cleaning the kitchen and prepping it for painting. I know when he mentioned that we might start on the kitchen this weekend, husband fully intended to take it slowly, but when I start, I can’t stop. Of course, when he saw everything piled in a heap in the center of the room, he began to complain. “You can live with clutter, but I can’t” was his first statement which set me off because I took it he was criticizing me for sloppy housekeeping. So, we had an argument before the paint cans were even opened. Later on it was his turn to misunderstand me when we finished the kitchen, and I started talking about moving into the breakfast room. Then, not only could I live with clutter but I was an ungrateful, bossy, demanding woman. Well, now that you mention it, I guess I am. For once, instead of arguing back, I picked up my horse crop which I found stuck behind a bookshelf and said, “You want to see bossy, I’ll show you bossy.” Then, we laughed and finished painting both rooms. I didn’t kill my husband, though I thought about it. I was thinking about how my response to husband diffused a difficult situation while I scrubbed the crud off the sides of our stove. When husband pulled it out to paint behind it, I was appalled at the nastiness hidden between the counter and the stove. I actually had to get a razor blade and a knife to dislodge it. If I had been running a restaurant, the health department would have shut us down. Sometimes, my heart is full of rotten crud that is exposed when I demand my way or criticize and complain. The only thing that keeps kind words or good deeds flowing is when my heart is full of God’s love and kindness. We might not have gotten much rest this weekend, but we managed to get through it stronger than ever. That’s even better than a newly painted room. And that’s saying a lot because I really like the way my kitchen looks now!
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