Housecleaning......

Adam and I live in a small two story house. The living room, kitchen, office, bathroom, and nursery are downstairs, and another bathroom and the master bedroom are upstairs. Since it is a smaller house, cleaning is a little more manageable than in a large home. In fact, I'm pretty good at keeping the downstairs fairly organized and clean. After all, we never know who may drop by unexpectedly. It's not perfect by any means, but it never gets too bad! The one area that often gets neglected is the upstairs. Once we get up in the morning, get dressed, take our shower, and make the bed, and come downstairs, we rarely go back up again. Throughout the week little piles of clothes form in the corner, toothpaste sticks to the inside of the sink, and shoes lay in random places on the floor. The interesting thing, is that those messes would drive me nuts if they were downstairs. I would have to clean and straighten them before I could do anything else. They don't bother me, because nobody can see them! It made me think of the passage in 1 Samuel 16:7, But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” I realized this morning, that I do the exact same thing in my spiritual life. I am careful to "clean up" the areas of my life that others will see or examine. But what about the "corners" of my heart - the things that only I (and the Lord) know about? It is easy to forget about them or procrastinate repentance in that area, but the Bible makes it very clear that God is looking at our heart, not our outward actions. He desires cleanliness in ALL areas of our life. The encouraging thing is that He is willing to help us with the "housecleaning" of our lives!!