Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil. Psalm 37:8 (NIV)
I am in pre-vacation panic mode. I have this insane quirk that won’t allow me to leave on vacation until my house is clean. I can stuff clothes into a suitcase at the last minute, but I will not get into the car until the floor is mopped, the beds made and the bathrooms clean. Whether it is inherited or of my own invention, I don’t know, but I have visions of getting into an accident and not coming home or having a water leak or something that will happen where people will have to enter my house and find it a mess. It might have begun when I was a teenager and we came home one night to find the police and neighbors in our house because they found an open door and thought burglars had come in. I was mortified at all the dirty underwear on the floor of my room. Anyway, I have been cleaning house a little at a time over the last few weeks, digging into closets and scrubbing tile grout. Yesterday, I had the afternoon off to put the final touches on my work. I had just finished mopping the kitchen floor when it began to rain outside. I went to let the dogs in the house, and they walked right over my still wet floor. Muddy footprints everywhere! Ooh, I was so mad. Of course, it was my own fault for not being careful. The dogs didn’t think about the wet floor or the footprints they would leave. It started me thinking about something Beth Moore said in that women’s conference I went to a few weeks ago. In teaching on these verses in Psalm 37, she talked about how dangerous anger can be to our lives and our relationships. She noted that anger is an emotion created by God and has its purpose in our lives. There is healthy anger and unhealthy anger. Healthy anger motivates us to do something good, to make a change for the better. Unhealthy anger leads us to sin, to make poor choices, say the wrong thing. She also said that many times, we get anger confused with grief because it is easier to be angry than it is to be sad. Anger pumps us up, while sadness brings us down. Beth added that it is no coincidence that the word fretting is used here. She said that the Hebrew word for fret recalls the image of a dog gnawing on a bone. When we are sad about choices our loved ones make, but express it with anger instead, we nag, complain and refuse to let go. Like a dog with a bone. I’ve got some things in my life I’ve been fretting about. I hope while on vacation and free of responsibilities, I can do a little housecleaning in my heart. Maybe I can learn to do less fretting and leave the gnawing to my dogs. When they are not tracking up my house that is.
I can relate to your cleaning frenzy… it's nice to come home to a nice clean house too (if the police or neighbors don't have to invade while you're gone) and your feelings of rest and relaxation can continue on for a bit.
The dogs weren't thinking about mud and floors… but apparently you weren't either, or you wouldn't have let them in. I think you were really mad at yourself, not them.
You can clean mud off the floor. Cleaning harsh words or a swat isn't as easy.
I always blame my sandy footprints on Bear.
He blames all the shed hair on me!
I can totally relate to leaving a clean house. Hubby always laughs because when ever we've had to evacuate for a hurricane I always clean the house top to bottom before we leave. He wants to know why I'm cleaning if I think the house might be gone when we get back and I tell him that I'm cleaning because if the house isn't gone I sure don't want it to be messy LOL
I love what you said about anger. It seems to be what I spend time working on the most. I have a temper and once I get mad it's hard not to lose my religion. I've gotten better as I've gotten older but something tells me I'll always be working on this one.