As the days are lengthening and retailers are displaying gardening supplies and clothing catalogs announce their “new arrivals,” I am reminded that spring is the time to put aside the “sheltering in” aspects of winter and focus on how to refresh my home to make it a “prepared place” for all who enter in the days to come. I also acknowledge that if I want my home to be a “prepared place” I will need a “Spring Cleaning Strategy” that begins with my heart and then motivates the completion of specific tasks.
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DO YOUR SUMMER PROJECTS INCLUDE A PURGING PARTY?
The summer after I completed kindergarten my mother introduced me to a new summer project—“purging.” It began in my bedroom and focused on removing all of the unnecessary items, from school and Sunday School papers to outgrown clothing. She packaged it as a “party,” suggesting that we were making room for the new clothes I would need for fall as well as the papers that I would accumulate throughout the approaching school year. Since I was now “a big girl,” what started in my room spread throughout our home as we went through each room purging the unnecessary items and reorganizing those that remained. This practice continued until she stepped into eternity and has followed me into my adult years.
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SPRING CLEANING THE HEART AND THE HOME
Many women looking for a theme verse for spring cleaning their homes would instinctively gravitate to Proverbs 31:27 and its description of the godly woman as “looking well to the ways of her household.” Others might select Titus 2:3-5, focusing on the character and responsibilities a woman should practice so that God’s Word is not discredited. First Corinthians 14:40 may also be a logical choice with Paul’s words that “all things should be done decently and in order.”
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