With 3 boys in the house, it had a lot of dirt brought in each day.
I would sweep
and then have to sweep again!
It was a challenge to find anything positive about the experience.
Then I realized it COULD be a Holy Experience.
Find out how in today’s episode.
Today I want to share the tip of sweeping with gratitude.
Not sleeping with gratitude. That’s pretty easy, but sweeping with gratitude.
There was a lot of dirt in my house and sweeping was not fun!
I have three boys and when they were little, there was a lot of dirt brought into my house and I would sweep it very grumpily. It was not fun. It was very grumpy when I did it. And just so mad about the whole thing. And it was always dirty and I’d sweep and it would be dirty again the next day.
And. It wasn’t very fun and it wasn’t very uplifting.
Could my thoughts make sweeping Holy?
And then I learned about doing things with intention and doing things with the right attitude and how that can make a huge difference. And I wondered, can it make a difference in how I sweep and can I make this a holier thing? Can sweeping be something holy?
It was a total mindblower, but what I decided to do was try sweeping in gratitude.
Sweep in Gratitude
So as I swept up the dirt, I thought I am so grateful I have healthy boys that can run around, outside and play. I’m so grateful. I have three boys. I’m so grateful that they have shoes and they come inside, they take them off.
Oh yeah, there’s dirt, but I’m so grateful that I can buy them shoes. Like I just went to all these things that I could be grateful about as I swept.
And what I found is not that I swept less, but that when I swept, I was happier. And I think that is a powerful way to make something holy.
When we can do mundane, boring, maybe frustrating things.
In an attitude of gratitude. It makes it something, holy. It’s a gift that then I’m giving to my family instead of a service I’m begrudgingly doing.
It works with doing the dishes too!
I find I have to do this with dishes also. So I can choose to do the dishes grumpily or I can choose to do them with gratitude.
Now right now, I’m not touching on assigning other people jobs to do, because certainly I did have my boys sweep sometimes and certainly I have people do the dishes a lot. My husband’s pretty good at doing the dishes and I’m grateful for that.
But when I do choose to do the dishes, I want to do it with gratitude. In fact, I found that when I was doing the dishes grumpily. my neck and shoulders were really tight and I’d hurt afterwards. Physically, my body would hurt after I did the dishes.
And as I changed my attitude and what I did is I would stop.
If there were dishes in the sink, I would stop and say, How do I wanna handle this? Do I want to leave them here until tonight and ask Rob to do them? Or do I want to just get them done? Let me say, usually Rob does the dishes at night. And it’s great. I don’t have to do the dishes, but sometimes he forgets or he’s up late and doesn’t have a chance to do it.
And in the morning then he’s already working. He’s not gonna be able to do them. And I get to choose. Do I want to leave the dishes in there all day knowing he’d be fine doing them at night when he gets home or do I want to do them and have a clean sink?
I get to choose!
And then I choose. And if I choose to do the dishes, I want to do it with gratitude and love instead of frustration and resentment, because when I do it with gratitude and love it’s service and it’s holy and it’s positive.
I put on a podcast to listen to, and I do the dishes and they’re done lickity split. Versus if I’m doing them with resentment. It’s not fun. Even if I’m listening to a podcast it’s not fun.
What is something you do often, that you want to make holier?
So this week, I want you to think about something that you have to do on a regular basis that you don’t necessarily love doing.
And think about how can I make this a holier way? And my guess is if you found a way to do it with gratitude, it would feel more sacred. It would feel more holy and you would get more pleasure out of doing it. I can’t wait to hear what task you choose to try this on and hear how doing it in gratitude helps you.