My husband
and I are contemplating building or buying a new home. It’s not the lengthy
process of packing and unpacking that boxes my heart in distress. It’s not the
mound of decisions and details that pushes my emotions to the edge. It’s two
words – show condition.
Show
condition.
Has my
house ever come close to this standard? I’ll give you a hint. My first name
isn’t Susie and the bunny doesn’t just hop by our home on Easter. The six of us
have occasional rabbit visitors of the dust variety.
The
amazing thing is I’m okay with it.
I’m a
natural goal setter and achiever. A paper with every item crossed off is
beauty. Honestly, I’d rather get an “A” than a “10”.
For years
I lived in a constant state of panic – too many tasks and too little time to
complete them. I fretted over keeping my hampers empty and my pantry full. I
stressed about holidays and ordinary days. My emotions and outlook rode the
wave of my daily “to do” list. The more I accomplished, the better I felt.
With so
much achievement my life had absolutely margin. There was no room for God to
work in my home because I was too busy doing it all for Him. I decided to make
a radical change.
I began to
pray a simple daily prayer – Lord Direct Me.
I gave Him
the pen to my notepad.
I offered
Him my time to manage.
As I
breathed this sentence throughout my day, He breathed peace into my home.
As I prayed Lord Direct Me, my home became less type A and more type Him.
Does your home need an extreme makeover? What would change if you breathed this prayer into the space of your home and heart?
As I was reading through your wonderful post, I kept wondering that, yep, maybe I need a makeover - a spiritual one. Maybe I need a little bit more Jesus in my heart and in my home. To decorate it with His words would give me strength every day.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the inspiration :)
Oooh I love this "to decorate it with His words..."
DeleteOh, this is good, sister! I'm going to start praying this way. I wonder what a Christ decorated home would look like!
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
~Erin
No doubt it's a thing of priceless, lasting beauty. Truly a home that no storm can wash away.
DeleteI luv that...not A but Him. That was perfect! You go girl :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Sharon. XOXO
DeleteThank you for this awesome post and for sharing at "Tell Me a Story." WOW I need to do some major work on my presentable condition. Asking direction from God - That is it!
ReplyDeleteSo thankful you enjoyed this post. Stay tuned for the next six weeks as we explore six additional one sentence prayers!
DeleteThis was great Shannon. I could relate to keeping the the laundry baskets empty and so on. If I breathed your prayer into the space of my home - closing my eyes and inhaling... upon opening my eyes and exhaling I would realize I really very satisfied ;-)
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. We are both incredibly blessed!
DeleteOh I love the relief and rest this phrase brings me today! So simple, but so true. God first, then I follow. Perfect - thanks, Shannon!
ReplyDelete~Ann
You are so welcome. I'm so thankful we get to encourage each other!
Deleteoh my goodness, show condition? never. and i used to stress about it, but now i don't? god really did a work in all parts of my life while i recovered from that eating disorder. i let go of reins in my household, my children's eating, my teaching. allowing him to work has brought a peace i never thought possible. does that mean god pushes the vacuum? well no, but it means i don't feel anxious when i see dirt. and it's awesome:)
ReplyDeletelol, God can walk on water...why not push the vacuum? That would definitely free up some of our time! :)
DeleteA wonderful realization! Prayer and scripture study have always allowed me to find more time than I thought I had before! Good luck with the "show condition" thing--that's part of the reason we haven't bought a new house yet! ;)
ReplyDeletelol - we're seriously contemplating selling the current house empty after we moved. I have some level of confidence I could keep an empty house clean. :)
DeleteGood post...could relate because I am by nature a margin person...love to cross items off my list. I think you are right...an empty house is easier to keep clean, will remember that next time we move. We have moved about 26-28 time over a course of 50 some years...still do not like the actual move process, takes me a while to recover. Blessings
ReplyDeleteBetty, you sound like me. I've moved 17 times in 41 years if you only count places I lived longer than 6 months!
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