Schooled by Soap Scum

Sooooo I have a confession to make.  It's been a year since I last cleaned my shower.  I can hear your gasps from here.  A year y'all.  The place that is a respite for clean in our home, has become a filthy hot mess.  

So it's out.  Your girl Mel has another flaw.  I hate, hate, hate cleaning the shower.  Now that I have let the cat out of the bag, let me explain what happened while I was cleaning my shower the other day.  You see I had to purchase the big guns of cleaning products because let me tell you, the amount of soap scum was ungodly and the mold-yes you read that right mold-was in full bloom.  It was one huge soap scum and mold rave.  Thankfully there were no black lights to point out all of the germs I wasn't able to see.

So this particular aforementioned cleaning product sprays on blue and when it's done breaking down all of the mold and soap scum it turns white.  I mean it's glorious.  Well, that is if you clean your shower once a week or even once a month like the general public.  Let me explain.  So, I sprayed on my cleaning product and jammed out to my music while magic happened before my eyes.  That beautiful blue little by little turned white, and it was like a fresh fallen snow right there in my shower.  Angels were among us.  So, I took my trusty scrub sponge and began wiping away the white.  I was so happy with myself because in my mind I thought of all the things I was going to do after I got this job that I absolutely hated done and out of the way.  So there I am elbow deep in my fresh fallen snow when I notice it was still there.  The mold and the soap scum were STILL there.  I don't know what I expected.  After all, it had been there for a year, did I really expect it to depart so easily?  It was right then and there that God showed me that my heart is just like my shower.  All that mold and soap scum didn't have to build up like it did.  If I had taken care of it like I should have the cleaning wouldn't have been so intense.

My heart is the same way.  So is yours.  If unchecked, so many things can build layer after layer into, over and on our hearts.  Unforgiveness.  Envy.  Anger.  Greed.  Selfishness.  The more these things build up in my heart, the more my relationships with others suffer.  When we take time to daily look into our hearts it will spare us so much grief relationally.  We might not like it because we want to think of ourselves as "having it all together."  It's so freeing to know that nobody is perfect.  So, since that day in my not so clean shower, with my not so clean heart, I have started to take the time to check in with my heart.  I'm not always good at it, but it's so nice to not have things get all filthy in there.  It brings peace to so many areas of my life when I do.  I ask God to show me what needs to be tended to and He does.

So the next time you're taking a shower, be sure to clean behind your ears, but also remember to lather up and take a minute on your heart.


Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Proverbs 4:23