Dishes and earrings

I hated doing dishes. Hated it. I would procrastinate for hours (sometimes days), hoping that Mom would have pity on me and do them for me. (Or more likely, get tired of them stacking up and just do them out of disgust.) I remember many nights Mom would go to bed and leave me up to finish the huge stack of dishes. I would work on them for what felt like hours. Some nights I would just get so tired that I couldn’t finish. So I would go into Mom’s room, wake her up, and in whispers plead for her to let me go to bed. “I promise I’ll do them first thing in the morning!” Some nights she’d cave and let me. Other nights she stood firm to her original decision and told me to get back down and finish them before I went to bed. If there were dishes there in the morning, I’d be in big trouble. I’m sure her decision at that moment was largely based on my attitude throughout the day. But I never recognized that at the time.



One day my friend, Kari, was having a sleepover for her birthday party. It would start out with a trip up to the roller skating rink and then we’d all stay up way too late giggling as girls do. It’d be a lazy Saturday morning as we all played until it was time to go back home. I was excited. Mom said I could go on one condition. I had to finish dishes first. Truth be told, I had plenty of time to wash all of the dishes. But I didn’t want to do them. So I procrastinated. I took my time getting ready. I’d do a few dishes, then decide I wanted to do something else more. Mom and Dad were gone somewhere, so I was left on my honor to finish the dishes before the party. The time got closer and closer and the chances of me finishing dishes before the party got smaller and smaller. Finally I buckled down and worked hard on the dishes, trying to get them done in time. I watched as the clock ticked nearer the time I had to leave and watched as the pile of dirty dishes didn’t seem to get any smaller, despite the effort I was now putting into them. Finally the time came and dishes weren’t done. I had to make a decision.

I chose to go to the party.



We had a lot of fun roller skating. If I remember right, there was a cute boy there that asked me to roller skate with him on the Snowballs a couple of times. That never happened to me. I was giddy. We came back to Kari’s house and started dressing up in her sister’s formal dresses. And then came the phone call. I don’t remember what my mom said, but I remember the dread of answering the phone and the horror I felt as I had to tell my friends that I couldn’t stay the night and had to go home. I remember sitting at the top of the stairs as mom told me very calmly how disappointed she was in me. I remember her pinning a chart up to the bulletin board in the hallway with a clipart picture of an earring in the background. I was due to get my ears pierced soon. My heart sank as I learned that I was grounded from getting my ears pierced until I earned back the privilege. I remember months of doing chores and slowly crossing off the boxes, waiting for the day that I could finally get my ears pierced. It took me 7 months after the previously-appointed time to do enough chores to earn it back.



It was a hard lesson to learn, and I didn’t learn it perfectly (7 months? Really, Tianna?) But I learned it. I had been grounded previously, but I don’t really remember any of the details. But this punishment has stayed with me through the years. It was the day I learned that if you let yourself get distracted from what you should be doing, if you choose not to do those things that have been asked of you, there will be consequences. I don’t get grounded anymore, but I do have to choose between doing the things the Lord has asked of me and the things that I want to do. It’s good for me to remember that if I put my responsibilities first, everything else still falls into place and, more importantly, there is much more joy and happiness afterwards.

Note: Somewhere I have a picture that I want to put on here.  I was hoping to get it before it posted today, but I couldn't find it.  Hence why I posted this late.  Someday, someday...