I have this small fear of opening up my house windows after weeks or months of having them closed. In the window sills dirt and grime build up as well as spiders and other little mysterious creatures. I’m not afraid of spiders or mysterious creatures, in fact spiders are okay, but the mysterious creatures get in the house, fly around and I spend most of my evenings cursing the heavens swatting them with a fly swatter.
In my basement and other cool areas of the house, live the camel cricket or as my wife likes to call them jumping spiders. They are ugly, they look like little gremlins and the only way to stop them is with a huge foot or book, then splat, cleaning them up is almost as bad as chasing them.
There are often duties in the youth ministry realm I think we treat like dirty window sills and cluttered basements. We are afraid to approach them because of what we might find. In fact we avoid them until it is absolutely necessary, then we are annoyed by all the little things that seem to emerge from something so standard. Here are the three areas I hate to approach:
A secretary, intern or office worker would help with some of these issues, but it really comes down to building a system where you get on top of these things and make sure you fall behind. When you don’t respond to the effort of others (like them contacting you with a question or filling out a form for an event you planned) it can then show some disrespect. It’s the same with our house, if we don’t clean on a frequent and regular basis, the clutter builds.
What area do you leave alone and then hate to approach?