A few days per month I do some cleaning for an elderly woman in my church. For the past few weeks she has been telling me that she had a “special” project for me to do. She mentioned that it had something to do with her pots and pans. I envisioned dirty, greasy cookware that needed serious scrubbing and did not look upon my upcoming task with a friendly eye.
I arrived at her house, mentally bracing myself for the unpleasant job. She lined up all of her cookware that needed to be cleaned on her kitchen counter and began to instruct me as to how she wanted it done. I was baffled, the pots and pans she had laid out before me looked immaculate. The stainless steel was clean and shiny.
“Oh, I haven’t done this in years, I really need to take better care of these,” she chided herself. She informed me that she had bought the set more than eight years ago. For the past several months she has been agonizing over the fact that her cookware needed a good cleaning.
I tried not to let my dismay show. Why in the world did she want me to completely take apart, scrub and reassemble her cookware, right down to each screw and washer? As I stood over her sink using her special stainless steel cleanser I mused over my work. What if she saw my cookware? I shuddered to think what her reaction might be. I have already replaced cookware that I’ve had for only a few years.
As I finished up each piece, she observed them, gently put them back together and then cautiously carried the pots and pans to their shelves. When I’m done “washing” my cookware it gets tossed carelessly into the drawer beneath my stove.
I began to analyze our differences in thinking and came to one solid conclusion: This wonderful woman was raised during the depression. She learned early on that things in which you invest your money are worth the effort it takes to keep them in good shape. She was willing to spend two hours to ensure that every water spot and fleck of orange around the bottom of her cookware was safely removed.
We now live in a disposable society. Most things we buy are poorly treated and then discarded with little thought. Though I didn’t run home and scour my cookware, I still learned a valuable lesson: I need to take better care of the things with which God has entrusted me.
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