A little bit each day

I cleaned our stove top tonight. The muck and grime had accumulated quite nicely. I first wiped it down with a sponge. When that didn't work, I hit it with some all-purpose cleaner, waited awhile, and five minutes later, tried to mop up. No dice. So, I took out the heavy artillery--good ol' steel wool. That did the trick . . . eventually.

The whole process took me a little too long, though. And it occurred to me that if I just cleaned the stove every day after dinner, I could have saved myself the aggravation.

I guess it is kind of the same when we work on ourselves. When I quit smoking, and years later drinking, it took a long time, a lot of tries, and a lot heavy mental and emotional turmoil. But I had been living the smoking/drinking lifestyle for eight years, and the drinking-only lifestyle for seven years beyond that. How could the road not have been rough?

Had I worked on keeping myself clean every day, or "one day at a time" as the members of AA say, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble--the trouble I got myself into when I was drinking, the trouble I got my body into when I was smoking and imbibing, and all the trouble I went through trying to get two giant, clawing monkeys off my back.

Just like my stove, a little cleaning each day would have done the trick. That is something we can all hope to do. Each day, moment by moment, try to make the right choices for mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. It will make things a whole lot easier.