What a Mess!!!

      Have you ever had the job of cleaning up something that was super messy? Was it all your mess or did others contribute to it? What were your feelings as you looked at the mess? Did you want to just close the door and walk away? Did you feel disgruntled about those that contributed to the mess? Did you decide to walk away from it and let someone else clean it OR did you finally get it together and go to work on it? And there is always the "asking for help" phase of cleaning up messes!!

     IF you ducked your head and just started to clean, did you get it done in 5 minutes? One day? A week? A month?  Or even longer? When you went back in to work on it again, did you just look at the messy part and get discouraged all over? Or did you also remember to look at the parts you had cleaned and let yourself feel good and positive about your efforts? Did you say within yourself, "I have done well so far and I will continue to work on this until I defeat it and it is sparkling clean"?

     Now apply this same thing to your own personal messes! Did others contribute to your personal struggles? What are your feelings when you think of your inside messes? Do you just close the door and try to forget them?  Do you feel angry enough at those who did contribute to seek revenge? Are you going to blame your issues on someone else and just walk away from fixing you? OR are you going to honestly look at you and your issues? 

     There are so many ways for you to overcome your struggles and become the best "clean" you, you can be. First you need to be totally honest with yourself EVEN when some of the issues have been caused by others. Then seek help in humble prayer to your Heavenly Father. And then, as we have been counseled, do all we can to fix us which can include going to counseling, seeing a doctor, taking medication, etc. And then continue to remember: don't just dwell on the messes still; look at the parts you have already cleaned up, the improvement you have already made and be grateful for it. Then duck your head and keep doing whatever is required to be that "best clean" you, you can become; step by step!!!

     Also, remember that many times, it is our own issues that create relationship messes as well. Let us remember to look inside ALWAYS before dumping our messes on others! Let us get the help WE need and help those in the relationship that may need help as well because so often our issues create issues for them. They also have their own issues to overcome, but we CAN and SHOULD help one another with love and kindness and patience!!!

     ALL messes can be cleaned IF we honestly focus on moving forward step by step (just like climbing a mountain!) and remember to not just focus on the mess, BUT on how far we may have come so far, even if they are just small improvements because small things grow into bigger things and those bigger things can be a benefit to us and to others in our lives!!!