Dealing with the Messy Stuff

I'm still on my housekeeping theme. I mentioned last week that I was behind on so many chores and I'm still trying to play catch up. My Monday blues took a decidedly creepy-crawly  turn yesterday and resulted in me having to abandon my schedule, again ;-), to deal with the unexpected.

I had decided to tackle this one cupboard in my kitchen that I'd really neglected, the one under my kitchen sink. I have a piece of linoleum under there that I remove to make cleaning easier. I can just take the linoleum outside and clean it.

Having been inspired by all the great housekeeping advice from "Time Warp Wife" and "Raising Homemakers" etc, and deciding to be a good Proverbs 31 woman, I was going to give that linoleum a good scrubbing! When I lifted up the linoleum, there was this HUGE cockroach! Ok, I freaked! I didn't jump on the furniture but he got sprayed with everything I had.. bleach, ammonia, dishwashing liquid (talk about green insecticide lol!) I'm generally not a faint-hearted woman and I've dealt with all kinds of creatures, having grown up in a little-developed area in the suburbs, but I HATE roaches! My skin crawled for ages afterward.

Needless to say I now had extra work, because I felt the need to check ALL the kitchen cupboards. While doing this, I chastised myself for having neglected the cleaning for so long. I told myself that I'd practically invited the roaches to move in.

I got to thinking that our souls are pretty much like our homes/cupboards etc in that respect. If we don't regularly check ourselves to see what sin (garbage) we are not dealing with, we could end up inviting vermin (complacency, bad habits etc) to come and live in our souls. Eventually, those will hatch new little sins too. Last week I was reminded that I have to stay in a state of grace, to be holy as God is holy( 1 Peter 1:16). We must avoid the occasion of sin . We constantly need to identify our sinfulness, confess and repent of them. Only then can His canopy of Grace be over us, His protection and His blessings.

I'm off to the store to get me some cockroach hotels to put around my home, hopefully that'll keep them out. Just as we protect our homes, we need to protect our souls. Let's try setting up some "sin traps" around our souls. Let's plead the blood of Jesus on every area of our lives that are weak areas and ask Him to help us in these areas. Scripture tell us in 1 Peter 5:8 that we must be vigilant because the evil one wants to destroy us.. the only way he can is when we allow him access through our sinfulness.

So, what vermin are you allowing to breed in your soul? I plan on doing some serious introspection later... after I deal with the real vermin!

God Bless!