collected dust

There is dust collecting in the corner of our master bathroom that always collects dust. A few weeks ago I grew weary of it never getting fully clean with the vacuum or the mop, and got down on my hands and knees with a special rag and specific tool to clean it out. It looked fresh and held the clean for a while... and now here just recently I noticed it starting to collect dust again.

There's a behavior situation with one of our children that we worked through extensively a year or so ago and I thought we had left it behind. Just this week it turned up again; some of the same poor responses to the same situations coming out again and I'm realizing it needs attention again. There's been dust collected in that child's life, and it needs cleaned out again.

There's a recurring temptation in another child's life, and every once in a while we clean it out, and then it collects dust again, and we have to clean it out again.

There's countless recurring struggles and temptations in my own life, that force me to daily open the Word, put it in front of my face, and clean out my soul... learning over and over, again and again, the truths that really transform.

It was a Monday this morning after a weekend where the house started clean on Friday, but was sorely neglected on Saturday and Sunday as we landed, dropped, and then ran to the next thing. "Collected" would be a kind word to describe the piles of dishes and laundry that greeted me when I woke up this morning, that I began to swiftly attack post-coffee. First load in the dishwasher, run that. First load in the washing machine, run that. Empty, add more dirty, repeat. The piles have to be cleaned out, cleaned off, daily.

There's no more bread in the house, so another loaf mixed up, and more flour and water mixed for tomorrow's loaf too. Daily.

Daily, we have to clean out the dust and bake the day's bread. Daily, we have to replace what is empty, and dirty, and gone, and depleted... daily, we must refill with what is clean and good. Collected dust is often a sign that I have neglected the daily, and a reminder to not neglect it. To be up and doing, to be urgent and consistent in the work, to never let down my guard against the apathy or ease the Devil tempts with.

Collected dust is a visible reminder to clean.