Humility 101

Humility 101
Professor - Amanda Smith, PHD (Permanently Humble Disciple)
Student - Jay Smith

It's been a busy time for me lately. I have been working 60+ hours a week, caregiving for Mandy and basically cooking and trying to keep the house in order. I have been slightly lax in that last item, so today I planned to clean the house. Vacuum, mop, dust, bathroom (yuck!) and laundry.

Now, if any of you know Mandy very well, she is OCD when it comes to cleaning her house, and she always kept it clean. If any of you know me, I am the typical "guy" who can walk by dirt for a week and never even notice it. So, when this morning came around, I got up, made Mandy some coffee and a breakfast sandwich for both us. We ate together in the bedroom, then when finished, I got up and complained about having to start cleaning the house.

Need a tree cut down and cleaned up in your yard, I'm your man. Need leaves or needles raked, driveway shoveled (or snowblown) I'm the guy for you. If it involves power tools and makes lots of noise, I am all over it. But, when it comes to cleaning, I have a hard time doing a "deep clean" like Mandy does. I mean, do I really need to move EVERY tchotchke when dusting! There must be over a hundred in our house.

Anyhow, when I sighed and announce that I was going to start cleaning the house, class began. Mandy said that she would give anything to clean today. She said "I miss cleaning." At first I thought she was joking, but I could see it in her eyes, she would rather be cleaning our house than being stuck in a hospital bed in our room. Wow, I felt about 2 inches tall as I started vacuuming the floor. It only took about 2 hours to get everything finished, some of her OCD has rubbed off in the last 23 years folks, so the house wasn't a complete pigsty, c'mon people, I am not an animal!

Then, as I finished cleaning, I took a load of laundry out of the dryer and put it on Mandy's bed and she started folding it for me. The girl actually THANKED me for letting her help. That's like 400 level Humility (for all you college people) and I wanted to tell the professor her teaching material was over my head.

So today, I moved every figurine when I dusted, I scrubbed extra hard when I mopped the floor and I even took my time when cleaning the toilets making sure that I made my professor proud. When all was said and done and I announced that I was finished, the professor took a deep breath and with a smile said "I love the smell of a clean house!" Well, I love when the my professor smiles, so the lesson was heard and I was a better student for it.

Sometimes I forget what it must be like to NOT be able to do the simplest things in life like cleaning your house, but today, that lesson was brought back to my attention and I am blessed to have a humble teacher to remind me of these little things. She has had to give up doing the things she loves and relies on others to help her. There are times when I know she feels guilty that I have to "take care" of her after I have worked all day, but I keep telling her that the time will come when I will wish that I could just take care of her for one more day.

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time."          1 Peter 5:6.

Jay