Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Relax.

I used to think that God was very concerned with the cleanliness of my house. I believed I needed to clean EVERYDAY. I stressed out a lot if the house wasn't freshly cleaned.

I really don't think He is all that concerned with whether or not your house is spotless.

Do you ever feel stressed when the house isn't clean to your standards because you feel dirty? It could make me feel dirty and stressed because I felt like it was all falling apart. What would happen then!? What if it does fall apart? It will. You can be sure of that. Our homes and everything in them will pass away.

Ease your stress by realizing with full assurance that this earth is NOT your home! What a blessing! We are strangers and aliens! Pilgrims! We're just passing through!

Don't stress out too much about this place.

If you feel stressed because the dishes are not washed, the laundry is piling up, or whatever...just relax. Remember, you're an alien here. Don't get too comfortable here.

5 comments:

sparrow girl said...

Oh, boy, my house is soo messy! So true, it's all passing away. It does stress me out that I'm messy, so this post was encouraging! Thanks!

Joel Brueseke said...

When I was a boy and a teenager, my room was always messy. Then later when I got out on my own, I became kind of a neat freak. I got tired of always having to look for things... LOL. Anyway, marriage came along, and then kids, and I don't think I've really seen our house "clean" since the day we moved into it a decade ago. :) We have old leaky windows. We have rooms that need to be painted. Our living room carpet was new, and very "white and clean" when we moved here. Now, with two kids and a dog, the carpet is a very dirty white!

There's always stuff everywhere. I mean, it's far from a complete mess, but there are always papers laying around, and toys and TV remotes and laundry baskets, etc. It used to drive me absolutely NUTS! But I wasted a lot of worry and energy in trying to stay on top of it all the time.

Someone might walk in here and think we're lazy and that we don't ever clean, but we do go through and vacuum and stuff like that every week. Tracey mops the kitchen and bathroom floor every week, and cleans the toilet.

Anyway, I'm just saying... LOL

If "cleanliness is next to godliness" was really true, we'd be far from godly! hehehe

Anyway, to get to the point of your post, I used to be quite stressed out about this. Although I don't get stressed out about stuff easily, this was probably my biggest source of stress. I used to be embarrassed to have guests because I wondered what they would think.

But I'm essentially over all of that. In fact, just yesterday I invited someone who I've never met to stay with us when he's in our area next month, without really giving it much of a thought. It did cross my mind, but just temporarily. You are right --- this is not our home. We happen to occupy this space here on earth, and it's great to keep a place clean, but in the long run it really doesn't matter one iota!

Joel Brueseke said...

BTW, sorry my comment was longer than your post... I'll try to 'clean it up' a little next time... LOL

Jamie said...

You just wanted to play X-Box instead of sweeping...admit it. :)

lydia said...

Ha, you read my mind today even though you wrote this last week. I just came up with a quote, 'cleanliness is not next to godliness, it's just something neat freaks say to sound spiritual and pump up their neat freak egos' - ahahhaha, you like it?!! Teehee............

I do like me a clean house, BUT, it is nigh near impossible with 4 boys running amuck......... :D