Thoughts of a Mrs. Modern-Day Mountain Woman Chapter 37

Chapter 37: Working against what you are working for.

We were starting the process of moving into a new house. The kids and I got all the baseboards cleaned, floors swept and vacuumed, cabinets washed and bathrooms and kitchen scrubbed. Then I decided that I just couldn’t stand the 1970s orange shag carpet in the bedrooms upstairs. It was disintegrating and the padding below would poof up as you walked or vacuumed it. So, with some help, I tore it up and removed it, and what a mess! Even with a shop-vac with a filter and very careful sweeping, dust was everywhere. While the floors underneath the shag looked so much better after the carpet was removed, I wished that I hadn’t done my destruction after I had cleaned everything. The whole house had to be re-wiped down because I had worked against what I was working for.

Often in life we work hard at a task that may or may not be worth all the work. Ripping up the carpet was worth it, working in the wrong order was not. There are tasks that we may not be able to physically or mentally complete on our own or at that certain time in our life. When a company asks you to go against your morals to do a task for them, will you do it? When a school asks you to teach something that you know in your heart is wrong, will you teach it, or will you take a stand for the truth? It is possible that not going along with a plan will get you removed from the job or task at hand. In the long run of life though, it is better to have spoken the truth than it is to go with the flow and regret it in the end.

Providing Beauty and Truth to the World.

There’s something to be said for the mountain man being his own boss. The ones who worked for the major fur companies usually didn’t enjoy it as much as the ones who had their own free reign. If a mountain man was his own boss, he only had himself to blame if the work didn’t get done correctly. He did, however, have to work with the purchasers and hope that they would be moral and fair in their dealings with him.

James 4:17, NIV: "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them.”

When we know that an organization is doing wrong, we need to at least try to do the right thing. Knowing the good we should be doing, and not doing it is sin. It is sin to call people out rudely as well, so in all things, we should be talking and acting respectfully and lovingly towards all people and groups involved. It is always better to tell the truth and speak from a truthful and kind heart. Knowing the good I should have done and not doing it when I started cleaning would have made my clean-up process so much easier. Not having to go back and rework the area would have made us finish the task quicker. Knowing an organization is doing the wrong thing and not speaking kindly about what needs to be done, means that things will continue in the wrong way, making more of a mess. Sometimes fixing a problem creates more of a mess than just leaving it alone, but that doesn’t mean we should just leave the mess there. Rip out that carpet, clean up the dust that is created, and enjoy your new floors and new life experiences!