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John Wesley is credited with the saying, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”
Now I am an admirer of J.W. He ignited a revival in the 1700s in the Church of England that led to the formation of the Methodist Church.
But I’m sorry, John, you’re wrong about cleanliness being next to godliness. You can have the cleanest house on the planet and be far from God.
As a Christian wife/mother/homemaker, however, I’ve struggled mightily at times managing my home. It does not come naturally to me. I prayed over and over again that God would help me do a better job of keeping up with ALL THE THINGS.
I’ve never been diagnosed with ADHD, but I have many of the tendencies. I get easily distracted unless it’s something I find compelling, then good luck trying to have a conversation with me. Hubby (a.k.a. Fix It Farmer) lovingly calls me Random Woman. I’ve decided that’s my super hero name.
Random Woman sees possibilities in everything and takes delight in all the beauty around her. She’s exceedingly creative and willing to give others the benefit of the doubt because she’s needed that so many times herself.
Anyhoo… back to my messy/clutter tendencies. At times in my life I’ve felt like it WAS a spiritual failing. But now that I’m older, I tend to be a little kinder to that busy young mom who all too often ran around like her hair was on fire.
Your heart is the heart of the matter
Just because this area still is a challenge for me doesn’t mean I stop working on it. I continue to persevere and find approaches that help me. And someone who has helped me a lot over the last 11 years is Dana K. White from the blog and podcast with the clever title: A Slob Comes Clean. I love her weekly podcast which offers practical help and compassionate encouragement.
Y’all, Dana gets me in all my Random Woman glory. Her first book, “How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind,” which I reviewed here, helped me learn an important concept: when I’m overwhelmed about the state of my house, just do the dishes. Washing dishes more often helps me keep my home from getting out of control.
Her second book, “Decluttering at the Speed of Life,” taught me “The No Mess Decluttering Method,” which means I make progress on a cluttered space whether I have 5 minutes or 5 hours. I reviewed it here.
Dana’s latest book, “Jesus Doesn’t Care About Your Messy House,” shares the spiritual underpinnings of her journey from slob to Decluttering Expert.
It asks the question, “Does Jesus care about your messy house?”
Of course the title answers that question with a resounding “No.” Jesus doesn’t care about your messy house, she writes. He cares about your heart.
This also means that if you’re discouraged about your struggles to keep your house under control, Jesus cares about that because He cares about you.
Created to thrive through challenges
I identified with Dana’s prayers, asking God to change her and make it easier for her to manage her home so she could pursue her passion for writing.
But God didn’t answer her request by solving her challenges.
Instead, God directed her to write about her big struggle with her home.
Dana writes, “He wants to use your unique struggle to show you how and why He made you the way He did. Your struggle can help you understand God more, and knowing God more is a beautiful thing.”
It’s like the Veggie Tales say, “God made you special and He loves you very much.”
Where we are prone to struggle and give in to discouragement, God offers us love that draws us closer to Him and grace that helps us keep on going.
And He wants to use our pain points to show His love to others. Dana said that while doing housework isn’t really a spiritual issue, writing books that help those who struggle is a way of “serving the people who were desperate for help.”
Dana continues, “Needs serve the purpose of showing us our inability to be self-sufficient. They drive us to discover the love of God. Jesus met people’s needs, and that’s why they followed Him.”
God calls believers to meet the needs of those around them, and one of the best ways to help is by acknowledging the same pain points in our own lives.
Blessings of ‘the slow miracle’
I really loved the concept of what Dana called “the slow miracle.”
While at first she prayed for God to remove her struggle with messiness, she came to realize that this prayer was “a last-ditch effort at control.”
It was when she gave up that instant miracle that she began to see God’s hand at work.
“True prayer isn’t a form of control. It’s not an attempt to get what I want by bringing God over to my side. True prayer is giving a request over completely to God and trusting Him to do as He pleases. True prayer is believing God sees and knows what is best.”
When she gave her struggle to the Lord and sought to walk with Him in it, she realized that God created her for the purpose of helping others with the same problem.
God uses our weaknesses to draw us closer to Him.
“Our weaknesses prevent pride. Not just because prideful people aren’t fun to be around but because pride and self-sufficiency keep us from truly knowing God,” she writes. “Weaknesses help us understand our need for Him.”
She mentions the Apostle Paul and his thorn as evidence. In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Paul writes about “a thorn in my flesh” and how he prayed three times for God to remove it. Instead, the Lord told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is make perfect in weakness.”
God uses our weaknesses as avenues for His grace when we walk with Him.
Looking for help
In my life, an ongoing challenge – other than the cluttered home where Dana is helping me – is how mental illness has impacted my family over generations. There’s an undeniable genetic link. I’ve prayed many times for loved ones to receive healing from serious mental illness, and there have been seasons of relief and good health. But I’ve yet to see the dramatic miracle I’ve requested.
The slow miracle is that Dana came to terms with her messy tendencies and used that challenge to help others.
My own slow miracle is realizing that God placed me in this family to show His love to those who are hurting, those suffering from mental illness and their loved ones.
He designed me with the desire to write about mental health and to address the stigma that often accompanies serious mental illness.
And that’s not all God wants to use in my life. He wants to use EVERYTHING. All the challenges and all the victories and everything in between. It’s just that He tends to get my attention better when I’m wrestling with hardship.
“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” – Psalm 121:1
Translation: I look to God when I need help.
When things are going great, I may say “thanks” to God and I may not. The difference in the depth (or lack) of thanksgiving is often related to the path. On an easy path I’m more prone to forget gratitude. But a rocky, slippery trail filled with obstacles prompts me to reach for God’s hand in the process AND give Him grateful praise when success or even relief come.
‘Beauty for ashes’
Dana also draws spiritual applications from the methods she developed to keep her house under control.
Here’s an example:
The container concept is the idea that you can only keep what fits in your container, be it box, drawer, room or home. To be able to function in your home you need to be able to find things quickly and just have the space to live: a closet or dresser or pantry that isn’t jammed full where you can see what you have and grab what you need, countertops to prepare meals, or areas to welcome visitors without a three week notice.
The spiritual connection is easy to see.
Dana writes, “When I make decisions about whether something is container-worthy, I’m asking myself, Does it deserve space in my home? In my spiritual life, the questions is, Does this deserve space in my heart? Does in fit in the identity Jesus has given me?”
The message I got from this, and throughout Dana’s book, is God created me ON purpose FOR purpose and that purpose is to glorify Him.
I’m to take whatever genetic cards, circumstances, talents and interests I was dealt and keep giving them over to the Lord, seeking wisdom from the Bible and the Holy Spirit to guide me so that my life points others to the love of Jesus.
And the big over-arching theme is how God brings beauty out of our weakness, if we let Him.
“To all who mourn in Israel, He will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for His own glory.” – Isaiah 61:3
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