“Who made you the boss?”

I was cleaning my bathroom today and as I was finishing up I looked around the small room and felt this sense of accomplishment. I love that clean feeling, especially when it comes to the bathroom because I really don't like cleaning the bathroom. Ha! And then this quick thought entered my mind, "But what if it doesn't meet someone else's 'clean' expectations? What if they came over today? Would they consider this clean?" And then (because scrapbooking is always on the brain) I thought about how one person will look at a page they have done and think "perfection!" And then someone else might look at it and think, "It needs one more thing." You see, everyone is different. Everyone has different styles. Even cleaning styles and definitions of what's clean. And as I've been preaching on here (this blog) all along is that's OK!!! It's so freeing to know that the bathroom is clean to *my* standard and no one else's standard matters. And it's so freeing to know that *I* am the only one that needs to like a scrapbook page I have created. Sure, if I see someone else's page or idea and I want to do that same thing, then I can make a way of making that. I guess the same goes for bathrooms. Ha! (Maybe that's what the Good Housekeeping magazine is for?)

I have to say another thing before I step off my soap box…why do people think they have the right come in and judge your bathroom or scrapbook page? As I said when I was in like 2^nd grade, "Who made you the boss?" (hands on hips, head cocked with an attitude) Why should we let someone else's standards and expectations bog us down? Stop judging and criticizing…it's doing no good. It's only hurting others and yourself. When we are so afraid of the criticism of others, I believe that means that deep down we are critical of ourselves. That's what I have observed about myself anyway. I am so thankful God is undoing all of that!

I leave you a quote that goes along with this:

Frustration is a function of our expectations, and our expectations are often a reflection of the social mirror rather than our own values and priorities.

(Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)