Saturdays and Sundays are usually a bit crazy around the Perry house. Saturday is the day we prepare for Church on Sunday. The Pastor (my hubby) is always studying to prepare his sermon for Sunday, and the Sunday School teacher (that's me!) is preparing for the Sunday morning lesson.
This past Saturday wasn't too crazy since hubby didn't have to work. We were able to sleep in! But as the day wore on, I was tidying up a bit around the house and was frustrated because of the clutter laying around. It seemed that in every room I cleaned, there were books and papers everywhere!
Clutter laying around is a pet peeve of mine, so as I was picking up and putting things where they belong, I was grumbling (in my head) about the clutter. Then I realized that in every room among the "clutter", it wasn't just any old books and papers I was finding... it was Bibles and notes. Machille (our live-in girl) had a Bible or two laying around, and Joe (hubby) had a stack of notes and a couple Bibles from that morning's Bible study.
I felt like God took me on a little walk down memory lane at that point in my grumbling.
Memories of unhappy times.. when the Bible could barely be found in our home, and if it was found, it was covered in dust; dust of a struggling marriage, dust of bitterness because of things sewn into our lives from our own bad decisions in the past, dust of inner wounds from (me) growing up in a broken home...the list could go on. Sure, we went to Church a couple times a month back then, so we read our Bible along with the Sunday morning sermon. But we never really let the word of God rule in our lives. In between the times we read our Bible at church, you would find it laying on a shelf somewhere, never to be picked up until the next time we went to Church. Our sporadic Church attendance was just enough to soothe our conscience, but not enough to bring a change.
When we were taught a home Bible study by our Pastor, the word of God came to life for us! We saw and understood things in the word of God that changed our lives! God became real to us and was a part of us! Not just on an occasional Sunday morning at Church but in our home- everyday!
As we began to actually understand the Bible because of the home Bible study, we started getting a glimpse of God. When we realized that God really wants to be a part of our everyday lives and that He has many gifts and good things to give us every day, that made us want to read the Bible more and more and make God and His word the highlight of our lives!
When you take the great instruction manual of life (the Bible) and really begin to follow it, it's amazing what a difference it makes in your home, marriage, family...in your life!
So after that walk down memory lane...there will be no more grumbling from me about "clutter" laying around the house. So is any clutter good? Well if it's a Bible... I think so!
I encourage you to dive into the word of God and let it become your instruction manual. If you let it clutter your house, it will de-clutter your life!
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Psalm 119:105
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