Thank God for Dirty Dishes

As I stood in my kitchen looking over the mess from the breakfast I had just made for my children I thought I would never finish cleaning up.  I finished my decaf coffee and placed my cup in the sink and gathered all the dirty dishes from the table.  As much as I wanted to just leave the mess for a while so that I could sit and write I decided it would be better to take care of right away.  Washing dishes is one of my pet peeves but it made me think of the fact that I am lucky to have food to have made the dishes dirty in the first place!

When I was growing up there was a collectors plate that was hung over the doorway and you could see it every time you left the house.  It wasn’t particularly pretty but it had a picture of a house on it and some words written along the side.  The words read: “Thank God for dirty dishes, they have a tale to tell, while others may go hungry we’re eating very well”.  I always thought it kind of mean when I thought about all the homeless people out there that were starving and had to rummage through garbage in order to get food.

In these times when many of us are struggling to get by I think we forget that we have more than we realize.  I may not have a job right now and my unemployment is about to run out but I have a roof over my head.  I may not be able to buy steak or order out but I am able to feed my children.  And I may not be able to donate money to all the worthy causes in the world but I do donate clothing and household items that my children and I cannot use.  Though I may not like to wash them I thank God for dirty dishes!