A Gratitude Trial

We have mice.

They’re desperately cute the first time you see them popping their little heads out of the stove burners (?!), but not after they’ve been caught eating your food and pooping all over your kitchen.  Perfectly disgusting creatures.  We’ve tried spring traps (they lick them clean of peanut butter without setting them off.  Cheese is just as bad), poison (they think it’s a nutritional supplement!), glue traps (they can get out of these! – though it’s pretty hard to extract the dog when he’s decided to play with a captured mouse!), sonic devices, essential oil of peppermint, and anything else we can find.

Ever seen “Mouse Hunt“?  Trust me, I’m about ready to hire the guy with the bazooka!

Anyway . . .

My family and I have been reading the book “The Hiding Place“.  In there, two sisters from Holland who run an underground for escaping Jews are arrested and eventually sent to Ravensbruck.  There they find deplorable conditions, but Betsy, the older sister, is anxious to discover how to serve God there, and they decide – based on their Bible reading that morning – that they will serve God by being thankful for everything.  Corrie, the younger sister – and much more like me – decides she can find ways to be thankful for many things, but NOT for the fleas which were rampant in their living quarters.

They discover that in spite of desperate conditions and the fact that they are watched every moment of the day, they are, for some strange reason, given a wide berth when they’re in the main room of their quarters, and discovered that the guards avoided them because of the fleas.  Now Corrie could truly give thanks for them.

I was thinking of this as I was deep cleaning the kitchen, trying once again to rid the place of mice and their filth.  I was angry – I not only hate mice, but I’m not too keen on cleaning.  To have to do it over and over because of THEIR mess does not make me a happy person.

However, I did decide to praise God for them, because I could see that they were forcing me to be a more diligent housekeeper – which is a good thing.

The exercise so inspired me that I cleaned the whole house vigorously for FIVE HOURS!  My house has never been this clean all at once!

So if you’re gonna visit – come now.  The house is sparkling, and I think my cleaning products have gassed the mice – I’ve not seen any today . . .

Darlene

Tags: Gratitude, housecleaning, mice, mouse