After several months of mayhem at home, things began to settle down and return to our normal way of life.
I noticed there were a lot of dishes to be cleaned, so I went to The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, wife Martha, and said, “Would you like me to do the dishes today?”
After a long period of laughing, she said, “Do you remember the last time you did dishes for me?”
It was about 20 years ago. I think she was away shopping or something, so I decided to step in and help with some of the kitchen chores.
I packed all of the dishes into the dishwasher. It took me quite a while because I couldn’t figure out where they all went.
I looked everywhere, and I couldn’t find any soap in the kitchen. I finally went back to the laundry area and found a big box of soap there.
I took that soap, went to the kitchen, opened the dishwasher, and just poured it all on those dishes. My goal was to make them cleaner than they’ve ever been.
I smiled as I heard it working. I then went back to my office to do some of work while the dishwasher ran.
While in the office, I began to hear a lot of noise from the kitchen I couldn’t explain.
I got up from my desk and went into the kitchen, and just as I entered the kitchen, I stopped in great shock. Soap from the dishwasher was pouring onto the kitchen floor.
The kitchen floor was being cleaned by the dishwasher, which I’ve never seen before.
I didn’t know what to do, and as I stood there, I heard the front door open, and in walked Martha. She came into the kitchen and yelled, “What have you done?”
I looked at her with some of those puppy eyes and confessed, “I thought I could help by doing the dishes today.”
She looked at me, looked at the kitchen floor, then looked back at me and said, “Why don’t you just go to your office and do your work. I’ll stay here and do mine?”
Not knowing what to do, but knowing I was in a great deal of trouble, I did what she said. It took her most of the morning to clean up the mess I created.
That was 20 years ago, and I’ve never had that incident happen again. So, when I ask Martha if I could help her in the kitchen, I began to realize the best help I could do for her was to get out of the way and go to my office.
I later found out there’s no “one stop” soap. How was I to know there was a different soap for each project?
While in my office, I was reminded of a verse of scripture.
“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”
— Psalm 27: 14
In my Christian life, the best thing I can do is get out of God’s way and let Him do His work His way. If I don’t, I mess up everything in my life.
Dr. Snyder is a former pastor who lives with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, wife Martha, in Ocala, Fla. His email is [email protected].
