This is a post about cleaning my home. And it might be really boring. And you might already know this. But I find that it’s something I have to re-learn all the time.
Whether I’m in the mood to try and get all organized or it seems like life’s just better if I don’t care so much about the mess, God always seems to be pushing me and growing me in how I think about my home.
When I loved having things just right for guests, he gave me lots of guests and little toddlers. And I couldn’t do it. And he wanted me to know that it wasn’t about having my house just right. It was about inviting them in and loving them.
And just when I was about to conclude that clutter-iness is next to godliness (you surely don’t have your priorities right if your home looks nice!) he reminded me about the time when I was a houseguest and the towels smelled too much like the dog. And at the bottom of my heart, I know that loving people involves serving them: Cleaning the bathroom for them, making food that actually tastes good for them, sacrificing my convenience to honor them above myself.
So I worked really hard to come up with a cleaning schedule to keep things under control. For two weeks it went great. And then morning sickness came for three or four months and God let me see just where my heart was at in all this. And now that the morning sickness is somewhat under control, he’s asking me again if I’m willing to sacrifice my connivence to serve others as I go about my work in our home. I’m sure that just about the time I figure out a good system for this season in life, a new little baby will be joining our family and I’ll need to be making sure my priorities are still right.
It’s the same message every time: he wants my heart in order. Exactly in order. He wants me to love people. He wants me to clean my home in a way that shows I love people more than cleanliness and to clean it in a way that shows that I love people more than myself.