A Change of Heart, A Denial of Self

This is the day that we celebrate our Faith, go to church, read the Bible, pray....but what happens when we begin to deny self and have a change of heart and really take the yoke upon ourselves to do what God wants us to do?  Things change!


My family moved from a beautiful large home in Arizona where we sat on 1/4 an acre of land, I had a huge wonderful kitchen and lots of open space in my home.  We moved for many reasons, one of those was I wanted to come back to Washington state. I had spent many summers with my dads family hanging out in Blaine, Bellingham, Whidbey Island, Concrete, etc..


I met my husband in Silverdale, Washington and we married in Bremerton, our oldest was born in Tacoma at Fort Lewis' Madigan Hospital.   We lived here until we were sent with new orders to San Diego...my husbands promise to me as we crossed into Oregon was someday he would bring me back home.


Though I am a Leo, I was raised in coastal California with the wet, cold and foggy mornings that living on the coast bring, but I have always felt a draw to the Northwest either Oregon around Grants Pass & Medford or coastal Washington.


The other reason was I felt God was pushing us to come back to Washington and the area we have settled in while depressed is very family wonderful!  


Our home on the other hand, is small, cramped, the kitchen is literally falling apart from the flooring that is coming up, to the counter tops that each day seem to shed more of their Formica, we have no central heat, no back up heat source, we have wood heat and we use portable heaters when it gets to cold, we have no insulation and I can go on.


What we mainly have is clutter...over the years my family and friends have blessed me with many wonderful things that I love...cookie jars, music boxes, Pez dispensers and in a larger home, it fits.  In our current home it chokes!


So, I have been praying that God will open my eyes, show me how to change and He has been blessing me in this way....I have began to take a realistic look around to see what can go...from old fish tanks, to way to many shoes, to over stuffed shelves....I am taking a realistic look at my clutter.


As I peel away a piece here or there, I feel more alive, more able to spend time relaxing instead of cleaning or being worried about where I will put more stuff!  When we let go of stuff, we open our minds and hearts up for the Holy Spirit to speak to us and we take the time to do what we should...PRAY!


I have a new morning routine...pray before I get out of bed, read my Bible before the internet & daily recite the ten commandments. By doing these simple things, I have found over the last week my life and my mind seems less cluttered.


I also quit a few years back listening to secular music in the car.  I now only listen to KLOVE, Spirit 105 out of Seattle or Air One and the kids and I love it.  Occasionally I can't tune in those stations from my travels, so I have a stack of CD's waiting in the car.


Its amazing but just changing the music you listen to for awhile, when you go back to secular...you will be amazed at how it doesn't appeal to you anymore or you hear things you didn't hear before and you think...I don't want the kids listening to this.


Lord, today help me do some more uncluttering so You can come and minister and speak to my soul and I will hear without the cocophany of noise that is usually swirling about in my head!  Amen