Mynnette's Musings: Dirty Dishes

The Parable of the Dirty Dishes

 

                My husband and I were so very excited to move into our first home!  It was everything we could wish for, except one thing I was really not happy about.  There wasn’t a dishwasher!  All of our dishes would have to be cleaned by hand.  We were determined never to have dirty dishes in the sink for longer than a day.  We did quite well the first few days, but soon work, church callings, basically life took over and we let the dishes go for a day.  About 3 days past, and I found myself standing in front of a giant mound of dishes. Dishes don’t just disappear—they’re always there to be dealt with. I was so upset!  I had such good intentions!  And they were all for naught, because I had failed.

                As I started to wash all the dishes, I became impatient and cleaned quickly instead of thoroughly.  I ended up having to go back and rewash some dishes that did not get fully clean.  It took many hours to finish the job and I was exhausted by the end of my experience.  We did eventually have enough money to buy a portable dish washer and I cannot tell you how happy I was to be rid of the dishes quicker and more efficiently!

                This is how repentance is.  Sin is always there.  There is no way to get away from it.  If we repent each day of the little things we do, our pile doesn’t become too large to clean!  If we take care of each mistake as it occurs, we will have less to worry about.  If we let ourselves go and wait, thinking we have time to do the dishes later, our pile becomes overwhelming and we feel like we can’t repent.  We will try to repent half-heartedly and end up costing ourselves more grief and pain than if we had repented fully in the first place.  And best of all, if we continue to seek to make the Savior’s Atonement part of our life, He becomes our dishwasher and makes it easier for us to become clean again!

                I pray that we will turn our hearts to the Lord and continually repent each day so that we may stand blameless in the last day and come before our Father and our Savior with clean hands a pure heart!

Related scriptures: Joshua 24:15, Psalms 119:60, Proverbs 3:28, Isaiah 22:13, Matthew 24:44, Mark 13:36, Luke 12:47, Luke 21:24, Alma 5:29-31, Alma 13:27, Helaman 13:29-38, 3 Nephi 8:24, D&C 6:3, D&C 33:17, D&C 64:25, D&C 88:83.