Don't use laundry soap in a dishwasher!

laundry Yes, this is what I found last night when I started smelling something odd coming from the kitchen. I opened up the steaming hot dishwasher to find suds everywhere and water leaking out on the floor! My husband walks in and says – what did you put in there?  I (innocently of course) say – nothing different!!  Then it hits me!!  My 2 year old LOVES to put the soap pod in the dishwasher for me!  Well, she had bounced in the kitchen earlier in the afternoon and said “Mommy – me help..me help” and points to the dishwasher.  She opens it, and puts in the pod, and I close it thinking to myself….I’ll just be able to load the dishes after dinner and not have to put in soap!  Great! So, after dinner, I do just that…load up the dishes, close it up and push start.  Not even thinking twice OR remembering that the pod she put in looked very much like my laundry soap pods.  Maybe it’s the having 4 little kids that made my brain not really function right – or maybe I’m just trying to make an excuse 🙂 Regardless…it happened.  Suds EVERYWHERE!!!  And you can’t add more water, or it will just make more suds!!  So, I decided to let it sit until all the bubbles went down, and then run the rinse cycle only. However, the smell was not your typical clean dishes smell – it smelled like TIDE!! I had to just laugh because it hit me – I can definitely relate this to my own life!! How many times have I tried to “clean up” my life – but I have used the wrong cleaning agent?  What I mean is…how many times have we as humans knew that something was missing…and yet we tried to fill that missing hole with the WRONG thing? We all have this need inside our soul.  A need to be loved, to feel cherished, to feel valued…and yet we often seek to have those needs fulfilled with the wrong things! Or, when it comes to health and nutrition, we try to “fix” our health issues with lots of external “bandaid” solutions, that don’t really get to the heart of the matter. Just like me putting laundry soap in the dishwasher, and it not working right – we all try to “diet” and get disappointed when we don’t turn out to be a size 4 supermodel.  We then try to “fix” it – but we find it only makes things worse.  We then end up in an endless cycle of diets and frustration. So, rather than really getting to the bottom of the issue or our health issues or weight problems, we just try yet another quick fix or solution.   What we find, is the “suds” just keep bubbling up everywhere! So, I challenge us all tonight to RINSE clean of whatever things we have tried with the intent of “fix ourselves” superficially, and let’s stop!!  Stop the endless cycle, and ask ourselves the tough questions:

  • Is my health or weight issue really a deeper emotional need I am trying to fill?
  • Have I been looking to diets to save me?
  • Am I in a mess of suds and bubbles, but I keep trying and trying things that just aren’t working?
  • Am I getting to the heart of the matter?
We all have to get to the point where we realize that we can’t wash our dishes with a Tide laundry pod.  We have to clean out our hearts and souls and really get to the bottom of why we are the way we are.  THEN we have to have the courage to really find the soap that is right. So, no matter where you are along this journey, ask the tough questions, acknowledge the things that need attention, make the effort to find the correct cleaning agent, and you fill that hole in your soul! Let us always remember that ultimately, the soap that can really fix us is relying on the ONE that knows exactly what we need. Once we can do this, we will find that the endless hole we feel will finally get filled and we can walk in freedom!!    ]]>

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