A couple of Sundays ago, my husband preached a message about the importance of meditating and memorizing the Word of God.  To illustrate his point, he asked me the day before he preached this message if I would recite from the book of James at the conclusion of his message.  I swallowed hard, blinked a couple of times, nodded and said, “Sure.”  

By God’s grace, I had memorized the book of James last year, and had tried to keep it fresh in my heart by frequent review.  But now, knowing I would be standing before our church congregation and reciting, caused me to grab my memory cards on which the chapters are written, and begin a serious studying for the morrow.  I said it with my audio Bible, I quoted as I dressed, I whispered the verses as I drove to church.

Then at about 12:00 on Sunday morning, as my husband finished his sermon he called me to the front.  With the plea in my heart for God’s help, I began.  “James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve scribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.”  I paused briefly in between each chapter, and for time’s sake I only went through chapter three, which took me right at ten minutes.

After the service, and since then, as people have spoken to me about my reciting those chapters, I have been addressed with some eyebrow raising comments.  The statements are from sincere people, but they are truly mistaken about how I can memorize long passages of Scripture, and it has burdened my heart with the need to set the record straight.

Do you have any areas in your house where to tolerate the mess?  For me it’s closets.  My bedroom closet was disorganized, and I really didn’t know how to fix the war zone mess.  But today, I was determined to get in there and find a solution!

Here’s where I started:

After major straightening, vacuuming the floor and discarding some items, it looks like this:

In the left bottom corner of this picture you can see part of a blue Tote. Inside that were all my purses.  It was impossible to get to one without dumping all of them into the floor, due to the fact that the closet doors don’t open to the width of the entire closet.

Yikes!  The shoe rack and floor were a disaster!

This is not my closet shelf (I wish it was!) but this inspired me. After:

Oh, and an extra bonus of my cleaning today was finding a $12.97 gift card for Bed Bath and Beyond and just under $2.00 in change!

But for real, the greatest benefit is opening those doors and seeing everything clean and in order!

Did you take the challenge today?  What did you accomplish?

With love,

The challenge was to vacuum and sweep all the floors in the house
My progress was that I:

Using my new Swiffer Cover (that I made) on the floors.  It works GREAT!

Before waxing

After waxing (and before finishing the vacuuming job on the stairs.  That’s why the vacuum extension is in the hallway).

Did you do today’s challenge?  Have you made any Swiffer covers yet?

A wise friend of mine used an analogy as to why she attends ladies’ retreat each year.  She said she goes to her doctor each year for a check-up; she attends ladies’ retreats for the same reason!  Oh, I like that!

I had a check up this weekend too; it was of the spiritual nature.  The check up took place at The Wilds Christian Camp.  It was actually a group appointment with over 300 women in attendance.  The Physician (Christ) used an assistant, Debi Pryde, to do some probing and poking into our hearts.  The results were all individual as we listened to the Spirit of God give each of us a diagnosis and a remedy for our troubled hearts.  We must have peace with God so we can experience the Peace of God.      He is the peace that will calm us in the midst of our storm.  We must believe the truth of God’s love for us so we won’t question His ways.  Many workshops also aided in our spiritual health – topics on loving the homosexual, training our children in God’s Word and watching for the fingerprints of God directing our paths.  Yes, we got some good medicine to bring home.

Did you ever get home after a check-up and find you don’t feel so well the next day?  The arm they gave you a booster shot in is sore!  The medication the doctor gave you for the arthritis pain caused your stomach to be upset.  So, too, after a spiritual check-up!  You come home to apply what you’ve learned and BAM! You get hit with painful times.  There is opposition from the enemy – Satan.  There’s opposition of your flesh (or your family’s!).  It’s not easy to obey.  As a matter of a fact, it can be downright uncomfortable at times.  But just like when we continue to take the medicine, our bodies will adjust.  If we continue to obey we will reap the fruit down the road.

So take heart, ladies!  If you’ve made a decision at some recent spiritual check-up, be ready for the painful days to follow, but keep your eyes on the Physician.  He knows what He is doing and you can trust Him.  Obey what He has revealed to you and you will enjoy great spiritual health!

With love,