Cleaning up

One thing I dislike just as much as the next person is cleaning up! I really don't care to make my room presentable, sanitary, or anything of that matter, I just want to live in it. But, As always, whether at home or in college, I am asked to clean up my room. Something I grew to be very good at through this has been hiding the mess. I find space under my bed, in my closet, or really anywhere that is not noticeable to the naked eye. I would make it look just nice enough that when my mom would come check she would be somewhat satisfied and stop getting on my case about it.

In most cases, my mess would accumulate to be so large that I no longer had anywhere to hide it and it would be overwhelming and not fun to handle. I would finally realize that my problem was so large, that I could not neglect it any longer and inevitably I always take the long, arduous process of cleaning, organizing, and folding.

The result though of my hard work, a sense of accomplishment. I, at that moment, did not want my room to get messy again, I wanted it to stay clean and spotless, especially after all the time and hard work I had put into making it look nice. These feelings didn't last more than a couple weeks at the best until the mess began to accumulate all over again. Now it may just be me being an inherently messy individual, because others are probably a lot cleaner than me, but that is a non germane tangent of my introspection of life. Now may we return to the aforementioned field of contemplation. But somehow at sometime, it gets messy again, hopefully I have learned my lesson by now to just clean as I go. That would make it a ton easier!

I am sure the real life application is basic and straightforward. As we go through life, we can accumulate a plethora of filth that keeps us from being clean in the eyes of God. Luckily, we have been given all of the necessary tools to make our lives as clean as we can make our rooms and even cleaner! 

Keeping Clean

Imagine. You are in school and you come home and walk into your bedroom. There is a note left on your door which reads

I will be gone for a period of time

I don't know how long I will be, but I will be back when the boss tells me to go home.

When I return home, if your room is clean to the following criteria, I will take you out for some ice cream!

Your room must

• Have nothing on the floor
• Your bed must be made neatly
• Be vacuumed
• All of your clothes washed, folded, and put away in their correct spots
• Smell nice

 I can't wait to see your clean room, but remember, if there is anything out of place, you don't get the ice cream.

          -Dad

Now, who wouldn't want to go get ice cream with their dad! So he could return at any point, it could be a couple minutes it could be weeks, you don't know! So what do you do? Wait until he get's home to throw everything under the bed and make it seem like you kept it clean? Do you work on it little by little and hope he doesn't come back before you are done? OR do you clean whatever mess is presently there, and make sure that everything stays in order at ALL times? Obviously the safest choice is the last one, and even though it requires the most effort, it is the most worthwhile path to choose. 

This can be compared to our lives. Christ told us the criteria that we need to follow. He WILL come again, we won't know the time, all we know is that He will be back. So how will you live your life? Will you keep living an unclean life and try and make things look like there is nothing wrong when the time comes, or will you try and rid yourself of vices one at a time and hope that you will repent in time and finally be ready. Or will you do what it takes NOW to clean up, get active and do what it takes to be clean and then to stay clean. My earnest prayer and desire is that we will all take this life seriously, that we will do what it takes to be living a mortal life worthy of all the blessings that our Father in Heaven is waiting to give us, namely Eternal Life. I know that this is something that is possible for ALL of us to do, no matter how messy our rooms are right now!