It is difficult to remain clean in this world. Both in the spiritual and physical sense.As mother of six children now, I have had the opportunity to observe a few things about babies. The thing that is most pertinent to the title and about which I have been pondering much of late is: babies and dirt.
Have you ever noticed that babies get dirty even if they haven't DONE anything at which they might reasonably get dirty? Maybe not dirty in the same way as a three-year-old playing directly in the dirt gets dirty, but somehow they collect dirt in the palms of their hands, in between fingers and toes, in the chubs at their neck, and under their arms? I have! At least six times with six different tiny humans.
Wanna know what I've decided?
It's just part of this fallen world. Dirtiness is just part of this fallen world. That's why we have to clean our nails frequently, take showers, repent every day, partake of the sacrament frequently, avoid environments in which sin is prevalent, and so forth.
This world is fallen. But we don't have to stay down when we experience a fall. We are able to rise up when we fall. We can and must clean off the muck and mud. Each and every time we experience a fall, regardless of degree. It is within our power.
Requirement: work. We have to do the work of cleaning up. Literally and figuratively. When we end up dirty as a result of our own choice or because someone sped by a mud puddle when we were walking on the other side of it. We just have to accept some dirtiness comes, but we can choose to get clean and work on staying that way. We just have to make the choice to do so every time.
