WholeHearted Home: "A Balanced Diet is a Chocolate Cookie in Each Hand" AFTER Cleaning my Haven!!

And whatsoever ye do,

do it heartily,

as to the Lord,

and not unto men;

knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance:

for ye serve the Lord Christ.

(Colossians 3:23-24)

"A balanced diet is a CHOCOLATE COOKIE in each hand!!"

(Picture Credit on Laptop: Time -Warp Wife)

Sit down with me with your hot chocolate or cappaccino, coffee (yuck!!), tea, or water and lets have a little chat about being a good steward of our time and home.

I absolutely LOVE to clean and organize our home!! Yes, I am CRAZY!! It has been the vehicle that has taught me many lessons over the years as I have been known to stress over the process. I still get overwhelmed at the piles of laundry or clutter that appears out of nowhere, but I am sure I have made progress in this thing in life that is called progressive sanctification.

Boxing Day is a day observed in British Government Schools in the Crown Colony of Hong Kong (before it was given back to China). Children were encouraged to go through their belongings and give those items away to the poor. I found out about this quite a few years ago and I haven't forgotten. I like doing this too!! I still find the need to sort through and purge, purge, purge, after Christmas. After all, if you bring things in you have to bring things out. We can't take them 'em with us, so we'd better not store too many treasures!!

Just a little time a day, keeps chaos from encroaching on me (or you!!) for that matter. Since December 26, I have done a little each day to put something away, put a few things back, but mostly for that week I sat and read, played mini-foosball with my children, and just enjoyed having everybody off their normal routines. Since this past Monday, I have cleaned in earnest and have worked on some major problem areas. My house is lived-in-clean...how does the mess and dirt accumulate?!

I have a friend whose name is Martha Mary. I could have been given the same name!! I can sure be a Martha although I also love the Lord dearly and desire with all my heart to have a Mary heart. We ladies can be out-of-balance either on the Martha side or the Mary side. So the Martha's shouldn't be too hard on the Mary's or vice-versa!! Jesus wanted Martha to serve with a Mary-heart.

But Martha was cumbered about much serving,

and came to him,

and said,

Lord,

dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?

bid her therefore that she help me.

And Jesus answered and said unto her,

Martha, Martha,

thou art careful and troubled about many things:

But one thing is needful:

and Mary hath chosen that good part,

which shall not be taken away from her.

(Luke 10:40-42)

Balance!! Oh, so often I get out of balance!! How about you?? Especially during those years while the children were little and I was homeschooling it was too easy to end up with too much on my plate!! Knowing what needed to be done while leaving some things undone. It is excellent to have a clean and well-organized home so that people stay happy and content, but never ever should these things (or our hobbies) become so important that they replace the need our family has for mom and wife!! Balance!!

I also LOVE reading about cleaning ideas and routines. I don't have a clue what is a matter with me...probably too much Martha!! I bought two e-books recently: 21 Days to Clean and Encouraging Challenges and I read the first one and started the second. I would have really found encouragement, ideas, and balance if I these two books had been available to me when I was a younger wife and mother. I knew absolutely NOTHING about cleaning or cooking (for that matter) when I first left home for college and I didn't know much more by the time I got married!! My poor dear husband!! Needless to say, that is why I try so hard to learn and still want to learn all I can. I want to learn how to become the woman I ought to be by the time I am ninety!! What a process!!

On Monday, I cleaned under our living room furniture and going from one side-tracked area to another ... I couldn't believe the junk that hides under the sofas and chairs!! Where does it all come from?? The garbage is always full!! Today, I stuck to the kitchen....without being side-tracked!! I washed the hutch shelves and cleaned the fridge. Oh my!! I hadn't realized that it had been so long!!

Things (unidentified 'things') were dripping down between the shelves, not to mention crumbs, 'things' uncovered, and two gooey cookies fallen behind the shelves would have been there for months...except that I rescued them. I have to call them 'things' because some of those 'things' no longer were identifiable. The dog ate some of the 'things' that I emptied out of the fridge. Some went in the garbage as unidentifiable science experiments as I washed and cleaned it until it sparkled. When it was clean...I put the stack of Sam's Club eggs back into the fridge and as I did, the top flat of eggs FELL down onto the shelf, dripping down the back right through to the drawers to the bottom below the drawers. I sighed a BIG Ooooooooooohhhhh!!

Part of the delemma of cleaning is that when you are done...you only think you are done!! More dishes appear, more crumbs on the counter, more laundry, more mud tracks in and then YOU know whether YOU are doing this with a Martha or Mary-heart!! Are you doing these things with all your might as unto the Lord or for your UGLY SELF rising up within?? Live life on purpose this year and clean your house, cook for your family and care for these precious souls on purpose for Christ, because He lives in you. Christ, the hope of glory. Your glory is NOT in you but IN Christ living in you.

My cappuccino is gone now, so I must run and switch the load of laundry. Nice sharing with you!!

~Judith~