Every woman fantasizes about the day her husband will say, “It’s okay, honey, I’ll clean the house for you today.” Well, friends, my dreams just came true.

I clean the house on Fridays. It’s my routine. But last Friday was the first day of my husband’s vacation time. As I grabbed the disinfectant spray and headed for the bathroom, he grabbed me by the waist and uttered the most charming and heart-stopping words a man could utter, “I’m going to clean for you today. Take the day off.”

While I pittered and pattered around the house, I watched the man sanitize with vigor. He dusted things that were long overdue, and polished some areas I tend to gloss over. I stood in the mirror applying my makeup while he scoured the shower. He sprayed and scrubbed and made comments like “Yuck,” and “Look at this,” as he produced a sponge covered in grim.

Soon my delight over his enthusiasm turned to displeasure. I pride myself in being an excellent housekeeper, always straightening and organizing. Was he trying to insult me by showing the filth that obviously I missed in my cleaning only seven days before? Was I not as good as him?

As I posed these questions to myself, I realized how ridiculous I was being. He was more zealous about cleaning because he didn’t do it every week. I, on the other hand, had become a stale housekeeper. I glazed over areas that needed to be unpolluted. I ignored items that deserved attention. I turned a blind eye to needs calling for my help.

I wondered if this described my Christian walk, as well. Do I turn my nose up at the passion of new Christ followers and shrug it off with a pious, “That will wear off”? Do I ignore needs and glaze over areas of my life that need to be unpolluted because I’m in a monotonous routine? Do I miss out on the joy because I am more concerned with how someone else’s actions make me look?

Oh, Lord, please create in me a passion for your Word. Let me be continuously fervent in serving You. Give me joy. Keep me fresh and never let me become stale. Please empty me of me, Lord, and fill me with You. Amen.

The part that is true in that statement is that God never changes.

Malachi 3:6 says
“I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.”

All of the circumstances and people around us change . . . our jobs, our kids, our world and even our spiritual walk at times. Just yesterday I found out that my job of four years is not the direction that I need to be heading. God has redirected my path to a new career and honestly I am scared to death.

The Lord is definitely not in the business of leaving us comfortable and independent. He wants us to be totally dependent on Him and why wouldn’t we want to be? His will is perfect. He and His will really are the only things in life that are perfect and unchanging. He is the only one that we can truly count on. But God and His purpose remains the same. God never changes. His mood does not change with the wind (like mine). We never have to wonder what He thinks about things or people. He is always loving and compassionate!

So, since we serve an unchanging God, guess who has to change? Yes, we have to be the ones to change. Jesus speaks in Matthew 18:3

I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The reason we have to change is so that we can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, as well as, become conformed to His perfect image. He has to use our circumstances to make us more like Him. (Romans 8:29)

So the next time I am frustrated with my husband, I am going to try to remember, there’s hope, the only one who can stay the same is God. May our unchanging God, whom we serve, bless your life today.