Dusting Off The Shelves

This has been a very busy week.  My mother and I would start at 8:30am, take a short lunch break, and resume our work until 5:00pm.  That was and is our knocking off time.  What have we been doing?  Let’s see – we sledge-hammered a wardrobe apart and pulled the pieces outside, moved furniture around, sorted through all the clothes closets and dresser drawers, made several trips to the Salvation Army Store taking goods no longer needed, and then we headed outside for awhile, cutting back hedges and bushes.

The last two days I have taken the task of cleaning out the pantry and kitchen cupboards.  I’ve completely emptied everything, replaced the old shelf paper with new, dusted and scrubbed, and then put back things in a refreshed order.  If I do say so myself – and I do – it looks great and my mom is pleased as anything.  That’s the best part for me – seeing her smile and feel so good about everything.  We’ve worked hard but had loads of laughs and we are both enjoying the results of our labor.

Yesterday I was thinking about what I could write in my blog this week.  I didn’t have to think for long because it had been staring me in the face for hours – it was the shelves.  When I thought about the shelves the verse in Psalm 51:10 immediately popped into my mind.

Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.  

I have felt so good cleaning the pantry shelves and putting things in good order.  That’s a part of my physical world but I find it’s no different in my spiritual world.  When I take a moment of time to call to Father, asking Him to “clean my shelves and restore a spirit of right thinking within me” I feel good spiritually too.  My problem is, like the cleaning of the pantry shelves, I wait too long.  Cleaning is long overdue when I get around to it and too often I find my mind has been cluttered and my heart soiled with the matters of this world.  Burdens grow unnecessarily greater when I leave my spiritual shelves unattended.

Therefore, with the reminder of the pantry shelves I have added a prayer, “Lord, my spiritual shelves need cleaning and rearranging into good order every day.  Help me to remember.  Help me not to let them get cluttered.  Show me what needs to be held onto and what needs to be thrown away.  Thank you.  Amen.”