Clearing Out and Cleaning Up!

This week I finally reached my limit on the clutter in our home. For some reason, it hasn't really hit me before that part of the reason our house stays a mess is because we have so many things that don't have a place to be put. So we end up with toys overflowing and books overflowing, clothes piled in every corner because there is no room left in the closets and drawers. Even our cabinet in overflowing because there's too much in there that's been in there for months and not been used. It finally struck me that enjoying our home and allowing it to be a peaceful, restful refuge from the craziness of our lives, is SOOOO much more important than any of this "stuff." This mama's sanity is more important that all this stuff. So I am drastically downsizing toys and clothes. I have enough clothes for three people (all of different sizes lol!) and the boys have enough clothes for ten kids at least! I am not exaggerating! It's absolutely ridiculous. Even Jeremy has a closet of clothes that I've not seen him wear since we were dating so I'm positive that someone else could enjoy those clothes and get more use out of them than he does.
And isn't it just like the Holy Spirit to take a lesson I'm learning in my practical life and apply it to my spiritual life? =) I've started a Bible study by Elizabeth George called Loving God With All Your Mind. In the beginning of the book, she reveals something that taught her alot as a young mom and pastor's wife. She was memorizing Philippians 4:8 - "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true..... think on these things." This first phrase really caught her and she began to think about all the things she allowed her mind to dwell on throughout the day that were not true, the truth from God's word opposing lies, and what is real. No more assumptions or gossip within our relationships with others. No more allowing feelings and the rational mind to come before the truth of God's Word about who He is, who we are in Him and our relationships with others within the body of Christ and outside the body of Christ. So the idea of cleaning out my mind and heart started flitting around in my thoughts. Then during Jeremy's sermon last week we were in Ephesians 4 and as I read down I came across verses 14 and 15 - "So then, we may no longer be children, tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of unscrupulous (literally, dice-playing) men, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead. Rather, let our lives lovingly express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly]. Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)." There again the Holy Spirit was leading me to this idea of living only in truth. When you think of gamblers, you think of someone who bets there life on chance, losing money, and sometimes life, on the off-chance that that card or that die comes up the way they want it. That is a great example of our lives when we are failing to live and walk in truth. We are creating and sustaining relationships, establishing families, working careers, and even going to church based on untruths. Our lives are too precious to be wrong about God and His Word. When we are not living and thinking on what is true, we're gambling with our own lives. A friend of mine shared with me that she has been working on speaking the truth recently and that it almost a mantra for her as she is at her workplace. I truly believe that the Lord is working in our little church and in the hearts of our people to clean out the clutter, all the untruths, that we allow to creep into our days. I so often allow my emotions and feelings to determine my speech and my daily life, instead of the truth of God's Word and the "real" of my life. What is "real" for me is that I have a husband who is a pastor that needs my constant encouragement and help. I have two young boys who are looking to me to train them in the ways of the Lord. I have several other young lives who look to me for their daily needs and for me to be their playmate and protector. I have a home that the Lord has so graciously provided us with, that needs to be maintained daily. These are the things that are real and true in my life and everything else, along with the rest of the junk in my house, has got to go. These things have robbed us of our joy long enough and I am DONE!