Cleanliness.

"If you go long enough without a bath, even fleas will leave you alone."

-Ernie Pyle

"An empty stable stays clean, but no income comes from an empty stable."

-Proverbs 14:4 NLT

"Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; But much increase comes by the strength of an ox."

-Proverbs 14:4 NKJV

I like this verse because I've cleaned some barns before, and chicken houses, and rabbit hutches. They can get pretty nasty, smelly, and disgusting depending on the size of the critters living there. That's why I like the KJV translation of Proverbs 14:4, "Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; But much increase comes by the strength of an ox."

Before there was John Deere, Ford, and Farmall there were oxen. Oxen were the tractors before there were tractors! They pulled anything that needed pulled. But they were not house-broken. They could mess up a barn stall big time!

I first met real oxen in Williamsburg, Virginia years ago. Margaret and I were doing the tourist-thing and I spotted two oxen yoked together and hitched to a cart. From where I stood they looked like two common, every day, run-of-the-mill, ordinary bulls but the closer I got they larger they became. When I stood beside them I realized that oxen are big. I mean BIG, BIG! Huge, large, bulls on steroids. Wow! At the shoulders they stood about as high as I was tall! BIG guys they were!

I'm sure they were powerful too . . . and messy. Have you ever cleaned a barn, or a stable, or even a stall? Not a fun thing to do but necessary. Oxen, cows, horses, goats, and even chickens will never win the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. So for some farmer, years ago, who wanted a team of oxen, A.K.A. big and powerful farm equipment, he had to put up with a big mess as well!

Reminds me of church sometimes. If I've heard it once I've heard it a thousand times, "Who made this mess? Probably the youth!" "Who used the bus last? Probably the youth!" "Your kids were passing notes in the service! Did you know that?"

If we use students as the targets for every Mess Committee Firing Squad in our churches we'll soon become churches that are small, weak, and gray. In the future there will be . . . well . . . nothing!

The farmer never kicked the oxen out of the barn because of their messes. He knew he'd be pulling a plow all by himself! Couldn't afford that, can he? He took the bull by the horns and cleaned up.

Likewise, students are naturally messy. (They learn it from their parents sometimes!) I certainly don't advocate cleaning up their every mess but once in a while we need to look at the big picture and shut up, pick up, clean up, and get about the business at hand--harvesting for the Kingdom. It's also good to remember we all were kids once! Expect some messes and remember . . . that plow is heavy. We need all the help we can get. Students may be the leaders of the church of tomorrow but they do a whole lot of leading today! Let's not sacrifice the enthusiasm and strength of our kids on the alter of a clean barn!

When Margaret and I were students at Liberty University and lived in Lynchburg, Virginia, we always had college students living with us; three and four at a time. From time to time we had students who were cleanliness-challenged. At one point things got so messy that I put up a large sign in the kitchen: "If cleanliness is next to Godliness, we live on the outskirts of hell!" Things got better after the posting of that sign. We even started looking like a house instead of a barn.

Unlike oxen, kids can be trained to help with the cleaning!

Housebroken too!