Spring Cleaning from the Spiritual Point of View

For the past couple of months I have been having the urge to purge and do some deep cleaning. Many call it Spring Cleaning and from watching nature from the animals mate and build nests and the budding of the grass and flowers, I would dare say that there is something that God has placed in us that makes us feel alive this time of year and give us the urge to do a deep cleansing.

Today I decided to tackle my Master Bedroom Closet. It looked fairly organized when I started, but after pulling things off of the shelves, and rearranging clothes (putting Winter ones away and taking out Spring/Summer ones) the closet and my bedroom looked and absolute mess. Now of course when I drop off the Goodwill bag, throw out all the trash bags and neatly put everything else away, I will see that my efforts have been worth it.

What's the spiritual lesson here? Look at your life as a closet. When the seasons of our life change, God comes in and pulls stuff out, throws stuff away, and then rearranges what left (if there is anything left!). Sometimes when we go through this process, our lives look a mess, it looks like nothing is going right and it looks like only the worthless things are showing.

But when God is done (and I say that symbolically speaking since I believe His work on us goes forever) we can see clearly a well ordered life-one that speaks highly of the order of God.

So if your life is a mess, don't fret. God is in the cleaning business!!

My Daughter Singing for Sabbath School

Jasmine was asked to sing at the 13th Sabbath Program last quarter. I missed it because I was at home with Christopher who wasn't feeling well due to his allergies.

Our Morning Outdoors

This morning as I was preparing breakfast, the children called me outside to see a rabbit. When they first spotted him, he was in our front yard, but then he ran into the neighbors yard.

The pictures that I got of him are not that great as I didn't want to get to close to him to possible scare him away.

After looking at the bunny for awhile, I noticed the chatter of all the birds in the air. I asked my son to close his eyes and see how many birds he could identify by sound.

What sounds or other lovely things have you noticed since Spring has sprung?

Devotional Thought- By Beholding We Become Changed

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed unto the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. II Corinthians 3:18

We have heard it time and time again, “By beholding we become changed”. But what does it really mean? God has made us as creatures with impressionable minds. In a nutshell, we are like sponges. We absorb what we immerse ourselves in. Whatever we focus on is what we become like, thus the phrase, by beholding we become changed.

If we want to be like Christ, we must spend time getting to know Him and continue to “hang around” him by immersing ourselves in His word. The good news is, that we never have to try to get rid of our sins. Spending time with Christ will make us want to abandon them.

The opposite also holds true, if we spend time listening to a lot of negativity, we will become negative.

A few examples come to mind to illustrate how this miraculous change comes about. For those who have children, you know when your children have new friends or have been introduced to a new concept. How do you know?-by the changes in their behavior. They say things differently, their attitude is different, and their responses to you are different. Any parent who knows their children, knows when their children have different influences in their lives.

Another example that comes to mind is when I changed my eating habits. I added fresh raw fruits and vegetables (salad with leafy greens) every day and made sure I was drinking plenty of water. After doing this a while, I paid a visit to McDonald's. The same food that I had eaten often for most of my life, and enjoyed, was now disgusting. I had not made a decision in my mind to never eat there. After eating healthy, I no longer wanted to eat there.

So it is with beholding Christ. After we get to know His spotless character, how He sacrificed beyond comprehension, we become dissatisfied with who we are and we start to act like Him! Praise God that I don’t have to try to be like Christ. I can just spend time with Him and He’ll rub off on me!

Happy Easter!

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

The Creative Power of God's Word

Lately, for my devotion time, I spend some quiet time with God and allow Him to place thoughts in my mind. I then go to His word to verify that these thoughts are indeed from Him.

This morning, the words "void" and "creative power" came to mind. The first verse that I thought of was Genesis 1:2,3

And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

The next verse that came to mind was Isaiah 55:11

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it.

This next verse I found after doing a search on the word void: I beheld the earth, and lo it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light-Jeremiah 4:23

So here is my devotional thought from these verses: God's word has creative power! One pastor put it this way. Holding out a white handkerchief, he said, "If God says this cloth is white, it either is white or it will become white!" How powerful is that? What God says either already is true OR it will become true as He speaks it. His words hold the very same power for you and me. If things in my life are not going exactly the way they should be, I can speak God's word over my life and expect a difference!

If God spoke the world into existence (Genesis 1, Psalm 33) then certainly He can speak a change into a life that has gone awry. Be encouraged and know that God is still on the throne and He is still speakings things that are not as though they were and bringing them to pass!

On the Needles

I have been working on knitting a clapotis. My yarn for this project is the Noro Matsuri color 6. The original pattern calls for Lorna Laces Lion and Lamb in Bittersweet. It's 50% silk and out of my price range! :)

I have made it to section 3 row 8 and am ready to drop stitches. In the few months that I have been knitting it seems that one of my main goals has been to keep all of the stitches on the needle and now I'm on a pattern that wants me to drop them! I've a little nervous to say the least. I found a great website that explains how to drop them and so I guess I'm not as nervous as I would be.

Here is what I have done so far. If you look closely you will notice that my needles are not in the project. I counted my last row and my stitches were off so I had to unravel to get back on track. :)

My next project is the Bunny Tail hat from Itty-bitty hats by Susan B. Anderson. I am the host this month for a charity knitting project on ravelry and this is one of the hats we are making for the knit-a-long. If you have a Ravelry account please stop by and see me (yolandamarie).

My yarn of choice for this project is Cascade Farms Cash Vero DK color 2865

My Core Values-Purity

A couple of months ago I began writing about my core values. The first on my list was Purity. The dictionary defines purity as the condition or quality of being pure; freedom from anything that debases, contaminates, pollutes, etc... Strong's concordance adds the words chaste, immaculate and modest to the mix.

I want my children (and myself) to be pure inside and out. I think of Mary the Mother of Jesus and how pure she must have been to be able to give birth to the Messiah-pure not only in body but in thought as well. This is the type of purity that I desire.

Now how exactly do you get (and keep) that kind of purity. Philippians 4:8 is one of my favorite scriptures. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there by any virtue, and if there by any praise, think on these things.

I use this scripture as a standard for the things we watch on television and any activities we participate in. Yes it means we abstain from a lot of things, but I am learning to keep my children's minds focused on other things to the point that they don't even ask for the television anymore. God is good!!