So here’s the thing about ritz crackers. They’re buttery and crispy and too delicious you can’t just stop at one. I get that. But their crispy deliciousness also means they’re incredibly messy.

Hence, a lesson learned today.

I don’t know what prompted me to open the sleeve of ritz (perhaps a little, begging man pulling on my foot?) but anyway, I did. Then soon enough, there were cracker crumbs everywhere. And I was upset.

While he was eating his crackers, I stood there watching him. I thought about gratitude and how anyone could be thankful to have to sweep the floor. I was resentful and thinking about how much I hate brooms. Silly things to think about, I know.

Jack ate cracker after cracker, and I watched in a horrified silence as handful of crumbs after handful of crumbs fell to the ground. And all I could think about was the task ahead of me to clean it all up, and how I wouldn’t get any help from the person who actually made the mess.

…but here’s the amazing part. After he was all done, before I could get out the broom, he immediately noticed his mess. “Uh oh!” he exclaimed, and then with no prompting from me he got down on his hands and knees under the table and began to clean it up with a rag.

At this point I thought to myself, “WHO IS THIS KID?!” and my eyes released their floodgates with tears of happiness and gratitude.

And then I thanked my Heavenly Father for sending him into my life. Because even though I still had to sweep afterward, he taught me a great lesson on gratitude. We have good food to eat, but in order to get that we also have chores to do. We can’t have one good thing without the other “not so great” thing, “for it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.” (2 Nephi 2:11) We’ve got these wonderful perfect bodies, and wonderful chubby little hands to eat those messy, delicious crackers with, and as much as I hate brooms, we get chores to do because contributing to part of a greater whole makes us happy.

I still hate sweeping; I’ll admit that openly. But as I cleaned other parts of our home today I tried to be extra grateful.

…it’s a work in progress.