Cleaning Up My Act

Every fall, the leadership of my church gives us an incredible opportunity to receive instructions and revelations meant specifically for the women of the church. In this internationally broadcasted meeting, the President of the Church, President Monson, spoke about focusing on charity and being non-judgmental. He began his talk with an anecdote to show how often, when people judge, they do so unjustly--not knowing the whole story or seeing the other person through “tainted” eyes.

A young couple, Lisa and John, moved into a new neighborhood. One morning while they were eating breakfast, Lisa looked out the window and watched her next-door neighbor hanging out her wash.

“That laundry’s not clean!” Lisa exclaimed. “Our neighbor doesn’t know how to get clothes clean!”

John looked on but remained silent. Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, Lisa would make the same comments.

A few weeks later Lisa was surprised to glance out her window and see a nice, clean wash hanging in her neighbor’s yard. She said to her husband, “Look, John—she’s finally learned how to wash correctly! I wonder how she did it.”

John replied, “Well, dear, I have the answer for you. You’ll be interested to know that I got up early this morning and washed our windows!”
-President Monson

As I sat there in the meeting, President Monson’s words flooded over me, and this particular wave of a story almost knocked me over. With a quick assessment of the past months, I KNEW that something in my life needed to change. Contemplating the words spoken, I made a decision on how I needed to alter certain aspects of my daily living.

And so I went home and immediately implemented this change. I washed my windows. If I’m going to judge my neighbor, I sure as hell am going to do it through sparkling windows.