As newlyweds, we are slowly starting to learn about the unglamorous side of living together that you don’t think about when you are all googly eyed for someone in the dating and engagement phase. It’s little things we are discovering that remind us, we are committed in the good and bad times… even gross times.
It was time for bed. That time of night when you are falling asleep watching TV, and just ready to crash into your warm cozy bed. Before bed, it was the usual routine: Wash my face, brush my teeth, use the restroom, crawl in bed. Except, while washing my face, I hear the toilet give a few burps beyond its usual girgle. We had been having flushing problems throughout the day, but as I patted my face dry, I then walked over to the toilet to see the water had gone down from earlier. Because the water had finally gone down, I thought it would be a good idea to try to give it one more good flush to clean it out before using it.
Bad idea.
Next thing I know, the water creeps up and up and up until, yeah, it starts spilling out. All over the bathroom floor. But granted, it is a toilet, so it wasn’t just water spilling out, but everyone’s “leftovers” from the day. I start yelling for Stephen to come help, and with all the excitement our dog Rhett, comes walking into the toilet area to join the excitement. I start freaking out that he is prancing all over the toilet water covered floor, so I pick him and place him in the other area of our bathroom. Stephen and I grab some towels to start throwing down and as I’m doing this, Stephen shouts, “Rhett is PEEING ALL OVER THE FLOOR!” It wasn’t just one spot, but FOUR different spots around the bathroom and our bedroom.
Seriously, between the toilet water covered floor and now the dog pee covered floor, I almost had a breaking point. Like, really? All in one night? Really?
After cleaning up the messes and finally crawling in bed, I couldn’t help but think, this is what true love is all about. Whether it’s a husband or your dog child, you know it’s true love when you clean up their messes and still love them anyway. And as I started to drift off, that lead me to thinking about God, and how true it is of His love for us. How often we get ourselves in messy situations in life, we give Him our leftovers, we totally screw up and mess up His plans instead of waiting for His best, yet… yet…. He still loves us. He still forgives us. He still cleans up our messes time and time again. (and again, and again!) The messes we create, it’s exactly what Jesus died for.
What mess in your life are you waiting to hand over to God? He wants to clean it up for you. I promise, His true love never fails.
p.s. The next day Stephen went out and bought a plunger. The toilet is now fixed. 
I’ll leave you with a funny video of the three of us helping Rhett do the famous wedding dance, “The Stomp”.
