The Squeegee

When our house was built, some geniuses thought that it would be a good idea to have a glass wall and door on the master bathroom shower. What we we – they – thinking?

Here is Arizona we have pretty hard water. Sometimes it’s crunchy. We can soften it, but every so often the guy in charge of dumping bags of salt into the softener doesn’t remember to do his job..

The result of all of this? Water spots on the shower door.

My EC came up with the obvious solution: a shower squeegee. After a few years of training, I am now proficient at wiping down the shower door and wall almost every time I take a shower.

However one of us forgets, or some less-disciplined housesitters don’t wield the squeegee, the water spots inevitably appear.

I have learned a few things about those spots:

1) if you wipe them off immediately, they come off more easily.

2) If you skip a time or two, they take more effort to remove.

3) If you leave them for a long time, you have to use more than a squeegee to get rid of them – chemicals, elbow grease, etc.

4) If you let them go long enough, they can etch the glass, which requires a whole extra level of work to remove them and restore the glass.

Lesson: Take care of the water spots as they happen.

Now for an applicable scripture, because spots aren’t just found on shower doors.

We have been counseled by our leaders and the Savior to partake of the sacrament on the Sabbath. And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;  (D&C 59:9)

More specifically, we have been counseled to partake of the sacrament weekly.

“By participating weekly and appropriately in the ordinance of the sacrament we qualify for the promise that we will “always have his Spirit to be with us.” Elder Dallin H. Oaks

Every week? But that’s just Elder Holland – right? Well, Elder L. Tom Perry, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, and Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, said essentially the same thing. I’m sure there are more, and multiple occasions to back up the idea. But nobody said it with more clarity than Elder Oaks in one of many talks he has given about the sacrament.

“Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are commanded to partake of the sacrament each week.” (link)

Commanded?  That’s a serious word.

I have found that the process of repentance – spiritual spot-removal – followers the same line as hard water spots.

I have learned a few things about sins:

1) if you repent of them immediately, they come off more easily.

2) If you skip a time or two, they take more effort to remove.

3) If you leave them for a long time, you have to use more than just a quick prayer to get rid of them. Stronger tools such as fasting, meeting with the bishop, might be necessary.

4) If you let them go long enough, they can etch the soul, which requires a whole extra level of work to remove them and restore the glass. This restoration might require disciplinary action, or some heart-wrenching effort.

Lesson: Take care of the sins as they happen.

I have found in my life that the most effective way for me to embrace the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and remain spot-free is to follow this simple pattern:

1. Every night, pray and repent of that day’s sins.
2. Every Sunday, partake of the sacrament – completing the repentance process for that week’s collection of repented-for sins.
3. Repeat every day for the rest of your life.

That’s it. Sounds pretty simple when you attack it that way. What gets complicated is when we skip a few days, or a few sacrament meetings and the spots start to stick, and begin to do greater damage to our souls, and our relationship with the Holy Ghost – because He is not going to stick around if we never get clean.

Spots are not permanent. They are always removable, but it gets much tougher without daily attention.

If the practice of squeegeeing the spots off the shower door can become a way of life, so can the process of keeping our hearts and spirits clean.

 

 

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