Good Housekeeping

Our homes should be a place where souls are nurtured and love. Good homemaking is less about a clean home and more about loving others. Since before marriage, I was very intentional about keeping my space clean. My parents had a housekeeper due to our demanding work schedule but I recall one time she asked me if I’d cleaned my room because I didn’t want her in it. That wasn’t it; for some reason, that space was my sanctuary. That’s where I felt most comfortable and I couldn’t wait to come home from our family business so that I could be alone to write, do homework and relax! I’ve prided myself in keeping a clean home, but most importantly I want my home to feel like a place of refuge. I love to serve. I love to have events in my home. It’s not to showcase what I have because my home is not the most extravagant by any means, but when people enter, I want them to feel a sense of calmness and love.

Now there is one place in my home that I don’t want visitors to enter: it’s unkept, a place of storage that no one sees, it’s off limits!  I’m so busy fixing and cleaning the more obvious places that I don’t take time for the place that is seldom visited. Knowing that I have house guests in my home for a few days bothers me to the core because of that basement! I’ve been wanting it cleaned all year long but for one reason or another it just hasn’t happened yet.

Do you have places that are unkept, places that only God can see? Are there secret places in your heart that need to be cleaned by God? Externally, it may appear that you are living a good clean Christian life, but there may be some things that are buried deep and need a good deep cleaning.

David understood and demonstrated the importance of coming clean before God when he prayed transparent prayers like, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10) and “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24)

Take a minute to do a self-inventory. Clean out the filth of your most hidden places by communing with God and allowing Him to wash you. A deep clean may take time away from day-to-day chores, but oftentimes it’s what’s necessary to maintain a clean house. 

3 thoughts on “Good Housekeeping”

  1. Darlene Liddell-Smith

    Cleanliness is next to Godliness — a clean and pure heart, swept clean by the Word! Every nook and cranny, as my mom used to say. We had to do the floors on our knees to ensure every corner was clean! She said that using a mop only pushes the debris into the corners — imagine that!!! 🤗

    1. I must be related to you! I’ve mopped like that for over 30 years!!! I love a clean house I just wished it could stay clean 24/7 but most importantly I want my heart clean and pure before God!

  2. I love this! And the title. I really love this scripture. So many things in our hearts that only God knows and can cleanse. You aren’t the only one with an embarrassing room. We’ve all had it at one point or another.

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