It is axiomatic: men cannot see dirt.
Whenever Keith leaves the kitchen, I enter it, looking for the mess he has left. No, it is not obvious, especially when you have a mottled medium shade of brown countertop. But as a woman, I automatically know to wipe a countertop after I have done anything on top of it, whether I can see anything there or not. He thinks because he cannot see it, it isn’t there. So I wipe up cracker crumbs, cookie crumbs, salt, coffee grounds, peanut butter smears, and assorted beverage circles several times a day.
That doesn’t mean he is dirty. If I ask him to clean the tub for me, you will have never heard such scrubbing and scouring and huffing and puffing in all your life. It sparkles when he is finished. Whenever he washes dishes for me, he will spend a good half hour on a black pot bottom I have long since given up on. No, he is not dirty. He is just not used to looking for the mess until I ask him to. Then he makes the effort with an eye to what is not clean, and suddenly, he sees it.
We all have that problem when looking for the dirt in our own lives. We simply cannot see it. But in someone else? That’s simple, and it is so because we have an eye for the dirt in others’ lives, especially those we don’t like much.
Many country wives tell their husbands again and again that it is impossible to get all the dirt and mud off those athletic shoes and work boots with the deep treads on the bottom. “But I wiped my feet,” they say, and walk right in, shoes and all. Then after they leave, we women get out the brooms and the dustpans, or in some cases, the mops and pails.
Some people just will not believe you when you tell them over and over and over that their actions will cost them their souls, that they will become inured to worldliness and think nothing of it, and that other people will suffer because of the dirt they leave behind them. They reach the point that they blind themselves to the obvious facts in front of them.
Today, make it a point to look for the dirt in your own life instead of others’. Do it while you still can see it. One of these days even a microscope won’t help, and then where will you be? You will find yourself living a life full of dirt and stains that would have disgusted you not long before, but which have become invisible to you. You will find yourself eating off a filthy countertop of sin that will kill you with its toxic germs sooner or later.
And why behold the mote that is in your brother's eye, but consider not the beam that is in your own eye? How will you say to your brother, Let me pull the mote out of your eye; and, behold, a beam is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first cast the beam out of your own eye; and then shall you see clearly to cast the mote out of your brother's eye. Matt 7:3-5.
Dene Ward
Whenever Keith leaves the kitchen, I enter it, looking for the mess he has left. No, it is not obvious, especially when you have a mottled medium shade of brown countertop. But as a woman, I automatically know to wipe a countertop after I have done anything on top of it, whether I can see anything there or not. He thinks because he cannot see it, it isn’t there. So I wipe up cracker crumbs, cookie crumbs, salt, coffee grounds, peanut butter smears, and assorted beverage circles several times a day.
That doesn’t mean he is dirty. If I ask him to clean the tub for me, you will have never heard such scrubbing and scouring and huffing and puffing in all your life. It sparkles when he is finished. Whenever he washes dishes for me, he will spend a good half hour on a black pot bottom I have long since given up on. No, he is not dirty. He is just not used to looking for the mess until I ask him to. Then he makes the effort with an eye to what is not clean, and suddenly, he sees it.
We all have that problem when looking for the dirt in our own lives. We simply cannot see it. But in someone else? That’s simple, and it is so because we have an eye for the dirt in others’ lives, especially those we don’t like much.
Many country wives tell their husbands again and again that it is impossible to get all the dirt and mud off those athletic shoes and work boots with the deep treads on the bottom. “But I wiped my feet,” they say, and walk right in, shoes and all. Then after they leave, we women get out the brooms and the dustpans, or in some cases, the mops and pails.
Some people just will not believe you when you tell them over and over and over that their actions will cost them their souls, that they will become inured to worldliness and think nothing of it, and that other people will suffer because of the dirt they leave behind them. They reach the point that they blind themselves to the obvious facts in front of them.
Today, make it a point to look for the dirt in your own life instead of others’. Do it while you still can see it. One of these days even a microscope won’t help, and then where will you be? You will find yourself living a life full of dirt and stains that would have disgusted you not long before, but which have become invisible to you. You will find yourself eating off a filthy countertop of sin that will kill you with its toxic germs sooner or later.
And why behold the mote that is in your brother's eye, but consider not the beam that is in your own eye? How will you say to your brother, Let me pull the mote out of your eye; and, behold, a beam is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first cast the beam out of your own eye; and then shall you see clearly to cast the mote out of your brother's eye. Matt 7:3-5.
Dene Ward
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