There’s not much that makes me feel as good as a clean house. With eight people currently sharing less than 2,000-square-feet of living space, that’s not always possible.
To keep from going crazy — or driving my family crazy — I’ve learned to relax my standards. My kids do their own laundry and clean their rooms. But this week, with the advent of spring, I dug in and did some deep cleaning.
Not only did I find a longlost bank deposit box key — Whew! — I also discovered five spiritual truths to brighten your own spring cleaning. In no particular order, here they are:
1. Housecleaning is spiritually significant work. It may not earn us high status, but one of the first things God did after creating the heavens and earth was to “put everything in place” (Isaiah 45:18 NLT).
As people made in God’s image, we should imitate his actions, making order out of chaos.
2. Cleaning is an equal opportunity event. Good news! Nowhere in Scripture does it say that it is a woman’s job to clean up after everyone else.
In fact, after making the first man and woman, God instructed them to care for their environment together, telling them to jointly “fill the earth and govern it” (Gen. 1:28).
3. Jesus told a story about cleaning. Remember that lost key? It was going to cost me several hundred dollars to replace. It had been missing for a couple months when I found it in the bottom of a basket.
Christ said that’s the same way God feels about us — like a woman sweeping her house to find a lost coin and rejoicing over it (Luke 15:8- 10).
4. Dirt has a way of becoming invisible. Over the winter, my lamp shades developed a thick layer of dust. I didn’t even notice until I took them down and brushed it off. After replacing them, I turned the light back on and couldn’t believe how much brighter the bulbs shone.
It’s easy for my life to develop a thick layer of dirt too. When I ask for forgiveness, Christ wipes it away, and wow, my life shines brighter (I John 1:9).
5. If it’s broken, save only the most valuable pieces. That was the rule I gave myself to help reduce clutter. This week my husband, Dana, took a load of junk to the dump including a broken bird bath, cracked toys, and pottery plates that couldn’t be fixed. Only the most precious broken things got saved — a Hummel figurine with a re-glued head, a chipped Royal Doulton children’s mug, a ceramic doll painted by Dana’s grandmother.
It’s the same way with us. Even when we’ve messed up. Even when our lives our broken, God doesn’t toss us out with the junk. We are far too valuable to him — cracks and all (Romans 5:8).
So after you and your family bust out your mops and buckets this week, take time to look up these verses for a long-lasting shine.
MEADOW RUE MERRILL is a Mid-coast Maine writer who shares about God in her everyday life through “Faith Notes.” For more, go to www.meadowrue.com where you can follow her on Twitter or Facebook.
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