Coming Clean

This article provides a good rundown of how often you should clean various items in and around your home. I must admit, there are a few I could wash more often and more than a few I should give a break, according to this article.

I worked with a woman once who always had a clean desk. At any given time during the day, you could walk in her office and host a luncheon on her desk. It was completely void of any of the regular trappings of an office desk. At most, she would have a pen and a folder out at any given time, but come quittin’ time, her desk would once again be spotless. 

Walking by her office and then arriving at mine, I would survey the vast difference. Mine was fraught with a towering inbox of “I’ll deal with that later” material, a couple of coffee cups, a necklace I’d worn days before that had bugged me and I’d taken it off and there it remained. An assortment of writing instruments, a phone charger, and a thumb drive all did their part to conceal what the top of the desk actually looked like. But then one day something changed. The co-worker was out of town and I needed to go look for a file in her desk. As I opened drawer after drawer, I found a scene more haunting than the one before:  files haphazardly placed in drawers, not in neat, vertical hanging folders, but just shoved in every which way. What looked like several purses’ worth of contents dumped into one drawer.  Another had several open containers of snack foods, dirty dishes, and even a spoon with peanut butter on it.

And it was then that I realized a very important lesson:  sometimes looks can be deceiving.  Don’t judge a book by its cover. And most certainly don’t assume that the inside looks like the outside.

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. “

Matthew 7:15-16