A Broken Dishwasher, Stained-Smelly Carpet and Relationships

Just a thought that passed through my mind as I was cleaning today.

At our  house we have many broken things.  I could share with you my "Honey-to-do-list"...but I will spare you my long list.  There are a couple of broken items in our home that remind me of dealing with RELATIONSHIPS! 

You see there is the dishwasher.  It has this funky, rotten smell every time I open it and load it up with dishes. No matter how many times I run the dishwasher through a cycle of washing, it still smells.  Today it finally stopped draining.  It has a pool of soapy water at the bottom of it. I can't use it anymore.  So now I am back to hand washing my dishes.

Then there is the carpet in the hallway.  It has this old, "animal" fragrance.  There are stains from who knows what on it.  I prefer not to know what the stains are from anyway.  Ignorance is bliss sometimes.  No matter what "Glade" freshener I use to mask the stink....it still lingers. I am afraid the carpet will need to be replaced.

I tell you of those two items not to complain, but to bring up an important lesson we all have to learn at some point in our life when dealing with our relationships. All friendships and relationships need maintenance work.  They all need repairing at some point.  Like the dishwasher.  If I simply ignore the clog in the drain, the smell gets worse, the rotten food gets stuck and the water can't drain.  The dishwasher becomes useless.  Are you in a relationship like that with somebody?  Your friend?  Your co-worker?  Your  family members?  Your spouse?  Have you become hurt by them and haven't dealt with the heart of the matter?  If you are starting to smell the funk....clean out the pipes! Talk about your struggles.  Lovingly, with kindness and gentleness, work through your issues with that person.  Don't let it slide a day more. If you let it slide....most likely it will get worse.  Don't wait for someone else to clean out the pipes.  It won't get done that way! 

How do you clean out the pipes you ask?  You talk about it with that person directly.  Talking about your frustrations, hurts or concerns is the beginning of healing.  If you refuse to talk because it feels like a hopeless cause, think again.  My carpet in the hallway reminds me  that if I just hide my hurt or chose to cover up or ignore the issue, I will be reminded of it daily.  The smell will not just go away.  I've got to pull up the carpet and replace it!  That means I need to get to the root of the matter, in order to revive the relationship.  I gotta  do the hard work.  I gotta confront and tackle the problem head on.

So today I am reminded by all my broken household items that life is full of difficult relationships.  And all my broken items will not fix themselves.  Relationships with others are like dishwashers. If they have a good cleaning and get the junk removed, they work great!  But if relationships get clogged up with bitterness and unresolved issues, they won't work and we becomes useless in the relationship!