Spring Cleaning

I don't know about you, but when the days start warming and the grass begins to green, I get the cleaning bug.  Although it is still cooler in our part of Oklahoma than it usually is, there have been days where we have glimpsed the start of spring and relished the warmth of sunshine on our skin and the feel of the cool grass under our feet.  The birds are more active too, which is always a good signal that spring is right around the corner.  We have taken off school this week to give me much needed time to do some deep cleaning…ovens, grout, baseboards are just a few things on my list.  I have also changed out seasonal clothes and rearranged my boys drawers and plan to do the same for my girls before the week is out.

Since we school year round, it is also a time for my husband and I to re-evaluate the curriculum…see if there are changes we want to make…items to delete and some to add.  It is a time for scheduling and making lists…something I enjoy very much.  But, in all the productivity of spring, it is important that I not neglect the spiritual cleaning.  How often do we assess the recesses of our heart and decide what to get rid of and what to add?  So often we become so used to "little sins" that they don't even seem like sins anymore. They become such a part of us…gossip, harsh words, watching and reading materials that are not God-honoring..and the list could go on and on.  This is also a week to do a spiritual spring cleaning for me.  There are areas I need to dust and wipe away the grime…to get clean before my God. 

There should always be more of Him and less of me.  I am praying Ezekial 36:26... 

"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." It is so easy for us to develop a heart of stone in certain areas.  When we get in a pattern of sin, bitterness, unforgiveness, anger, frustration, procrastination, it becomes a part of us.  We stop seeing it as something that needs to be eradicated, but rather look on it as a personality trait we have to live with.  That, however, is not the way God sees it.

So, if you are like me, and you are beginning your spring cleaning soon.  Ask God to show you areas in your heart that need cleaning.  He is faithful to show us those things when we ask because our Father desires us to be righteous before Him.  And trust me, that kind of cleaning is so much more profitable than having a spotless house.  Happy Cleaning!