Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Cleanliness Is Next To Godliness

Who said that anyway?  People think it's in the Bible but it's not.  And what does it mean?  How far do you take this cleanliness thing?

I'm thinking of cleanliness today because it's a clean day at my house!  Yay!  I realized awhile ago after I washed the dog that:
  • My house is clean
  • I am clean
  • My hair is clean
  • My dog is clean
  • My laundry is clean
  • My dishes are clean
  • My sheets are clean
Everything here got "washed" today.  Rarely does it all happen on the same day but what a good feeling it is!  There is something about a clean space that is inspiring.  After all, once you get on a roll, it's hard to stop.  You want to wash the dirty dishes and take out the trash.

On the other hand, when most of our life house is a mess, it's just too overwhelming to get started so "mess begets mess", just like "cleanliness and order beget cleanliness and order".  I'm not sure why that is true but I know it is.

Taking that inside, cleaning up our act feels good too doesn't it.  And once you start, it gets harder to hold onto that one area that still feels dark and dirty.  When we begin cleaning up, we inspire ourselves to keep at it.

How good it feels to dump any garbage we've been carrying around.  Things we wish we had done differently.  Things we wish we hadn't done at all.  Coming clean gives us a new start.  It is inspiring.  It is like a bath for our soul.

My house is clean today because I had help.  If I'd had to do it all by myself I'd never finish...not all in one day!   Help is good.  Even Jesus asked for help.  "John, will you baptize me in the water?"  "I've come a long way to ask you for your help."  John didn't know why in the world Jesus was asking but he helped with the task and Jesus was spotless.  He set the example, huh?

We can be too.  We just take out our garbage and dump it.  Give it up.  Start clean and fresh to design our lives and be who we want to be.

5 comments:

  1. What a tremendous message in your post! It is all so very true. There are few things in this world that we can control, but taking out the garbage is one we can control. I know that if Jesus were to knock on my door, I wouldn't be ashamed to invite him in. I'm a big believer in if your house is a mess, so is your life. As a victim's advocate, I can say that 99.9% of the time when I walked into a victims home, it was a mess! I mean really bad. Their lives are a mess, and their homes reflect that. I believe that cleanliness is next to Godliness because it brings peace, comfort, and accomplishment. What is closer to God than that?

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  2. Ah, peace, comfort, and accomplishment. Hard combination to beat. Thanks for your meaningful comment Susan.

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  3. Only when we declutter stuff from the inside that we see a spotless exterior.:)

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  4. If only...Are you for hire? LOL. With 4 kids, work, activities, etc it is a really really good day if all the dishes in the sink get put in the dishwasher and laundry folded and put away. It is always a work in progress that is for sure.

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  5. I had help. Can't do it all by yourself. Takes a village.

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