fresh flowers for March 25

House Cleaning

©2005, Lani Wiens

a fresh flowers original

Seven human beans live in my home. That translates into at least 7 pairs of underwear every day (one is potty training so it sometimes it’s more, one in diapers). Tally 14 socks, approximately 13 pieces of other assorted clothing unless of course we’ve had pancakes for a meal or the little princess has decided to change her clothes several times that day OR it is spring and they are out experiencing nature. Many towels, dishcloths and various other cloth-like items get dirty in our house every day. That’s before we get into changing sheets and the like. It’s a LOT of laundry.

Seven human beans live in my home. We ran out of dishwasher soap the other day so we’ve been doing everything by hand. All seven are home for three meals every day. Do the math, it’s a never ending stream of dishes. I’m thinking we should get stock in Royal Chinette and start buying paper.

Seven human beans live in my home. Three or four of the smaller beans are home every day, playing with play dough, using the window writers, playing games and driving their cars through the house. That adds up to general debris littered pretty much everywhere.

The head bean works out of our home. His office is located in the garage but various papers, envelopes and equipment find their way into the house and can’t find their way out again.

The lady bean is very creative and crafty and some of those projects take up floor space in the house. Most of her stuff is contained to one spot, but sometimes it spills over.

Sometimes the beans make choices that cause the dishes, laundry, resentment, anger and other debris to pile

up. The beans get discouraged. It is harder the next day to make the choice to die to playing all day because today the pile is a little bigger. The beans know if they keep on this way the piles will be so big that they won’t want to ever move them.

Every day this bean has to decide to be pure and holy, to tell the truth, to love my family and neighbours and to be obedient to God. I don’t always choose well and the debris that litters my heart gets a little bigger. Jesus said that we need to choose daily to walk with Him, to choose Him over our own desires. I want my physical house to stay tidy and clean. That means making the choice every day to wash the clothes, do the dishes and sweep up the debris. It means I need to put the silly cushions back on the couch for the 10^th time that day. I want my spiritual house to be clean as well. That means making the choice every day to wash my spirit with the word of God, to clean up relational messes and to repent from my own nasty ways. Every day I let go by without doing that cleaning, either spiritually or physically makes it more difficult and discouraging to do it the next day because the pile is a little more daunting.

The bad news is that those piles will keep coming. All of us beans are pretty human and we have to keep cleaning up the messes we make. The good news is that Jesus said he would give us the strength and grace to do the cleaning that needs to be done. He also said he would never leave us alone to face it all by ourselves. That is really good news. Don’t get discouraged by the piles, if you keep working at them you will get to the bottom, especially those ones that have been building up for awhile. Don’t lose heart you have a cleaning buddy who will stick with you until the job is done.

Ps. For help with the physical chaos of your home (if you have it) check out www.flylady.net for some very practical help.