Seeing new sights is great—meeting new people, fellow travelers on this journey toward home is wonderful, but friend, nothing compares (at least until we get to heaven) to walking in the door to your own house and kicking off your shoes and getting comfortable.

I prepared the house before we left for what I wanted to feel and see when I walked back in.  I cleaned it.  From top to bottom.  So that when we walked in, there was nothing to do but unload and unpack.  Jeff unloaded, I unpacked.  Then there was the trip laundry that needed to be done.  With more than 16 hours total on the way home (we had to detour to get the “baby”)—going as far as we could—then getting a fresh start yesterday morning.  I was glad I made the extra effort for clean sheets on the bed—not that it would have mattered at our point of exhaustion, but it sure felt good.

Scooter was as glad to see us as we were to see him.  And he felt the same way about home.  He explored the rooms, smelling, making sure nothing had changed—and then checked out his toy box, making sure nothing was missing—running—jumping, excited!

As I began my devotion this morning, sitting in my favorite spot felt like I sat down with an old friend.  I began my dialogue with Jesus.  Telling Him how thankful I was for the opportunity to be with precious friends.  Then the sights I saw—and the great conference we attended—added bonus gift from heaven, the snow.  My heart spilled forth my desire to follow His plan—not my own. 

I realized what I had prepared in advance of our return, was the benefit of what I experienced when I got home.  I’m not sure I said that clearly. (I leave you to figure out the message in that…no sense in me doing all the work.) 

What I mean is—all the effort I put into getting the house ready for our return—is what I enjoyed—and what brought me great pleasure when I walked in the door.  Clean.  Nothing to do but take care of what we brought in the house.

When you put all your effort into God’s plans-and-purpose here—no agenda of your own, just simply taking every opportunity to be a blessing and minister to others, you are preparing  your spiritual home.  Each day as we “give everything to God”, He takes us through the ropes of house cleaning.  Removing the clutter. 

Do you have some clutter?

I know I still do.  I’m opening every door for Him to see—and yet He reveals more. (By the way, He has x-ray vision—can see through doors and tall buildings are nothing to Him) 

He shows me what I tucked back and why.  He shines the light in every place—I thought had been long dealt with—yet there was something, some hurt or pain that I allowed to remain.  As long as it remains, there can’t be full healing as there needs to be.  Sometimes it’s painful.  But as necessary as dealing with an abscessed tooth.  If left untreated, it will cause a great deal of damage.

Let’s do some “spring” cleaning.  Heart and home.  Allow Christ access to all the old junk you are holding on to.  I can tell you from experience, it will do nothing but weigh you down, so much so—it may just keep you down when He calls for us to go UP!

Now, without further ado, via random number generator, the winner of the book, “Winning Him Without Words” by my friends, Lynn Donovan and Dineen Miller is: Ang of the blog, “Angela’s Words of …” (please contact me with your mailing address).  I invite you to go over and congratulate her—and read her latest post—I just did—and it is amazing.

I ALSO encourage you that if you know someone who is struggling in a marriage of spiritual mismatch—get them a copy of this book—THEY will be blessed—but so will you.  (Sow a seed of kindness into the life of another.)

Thank You Jesus—for the sweetest gifts of life.  Friends and family. 

Thank You Lord that You care so much about us, that no detail is ever overlooked.  Thank You Lord for the family we have been blessed with from JFA.  Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers and bringing us closer to You.

Matt—you need to start a blog.  But I know with all the other things you do—church, family—pastoring—music—etc. WHERE in the world would you ever find the time! 🙂 

We were blessed BEYOND words at your sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.  Your messages came straight from the throne room of God.  It was like we were sent just at this time, just for those messages.  Jeff and I both agreed, we felt like we’d had a spiritual bath and that God was pouring things into us that was necessary for our next steps.  Amazing services.  You have a GREAT church-filled with friendly and precious people—and Jeff and I laughed as we tried to figure out a way to bring it closer.

Thank you to our regular readers.  For hanging in there when the dust of the fields came flying…and for reading all the way down to the bottom of this lengthy post!  (Let me know if you fell asleep.)  Jeff didn’t get his blog post together—he apologized, but said their were other things to see and do.  I could do the writing for this week.  He’ll write later.

As a side note, what do you like best about blog writing?  Devotionals or life?  Or a combo of both.  Do you blog?  Journal?  Or just think a bunch of random thoughts….that’s where this blog started.  YEARS of random thoughts in the head…all spilled forth into blog form in 2007.

I hope you all have a super blessed weekend! 🙂  (We’ll see what God has next……)

Do you see the heart?

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