Love through me, Love of God,

Make me like Thy clear air

Through which unhindered, colors pass

As though it were not there.

Powers of the love of Good,

Depths of the heart Divine,

O Love that faileth not, break forth,

and flood this world of Thine.

~Amy Carmichael

I found this short poem in Amy Carmichael's book "If". It really spoke to me. As conservative Christians, I think it's easy for us to be judgemental and harsh when we don't agree with something. Our first thought is "That's just not biblical!" and then we state our views rather harshly or avoid someone altogether because they are not like us.

We should not be tolerant of sin, but we should be loving to all we encounter. We should be gracious and kind and allow God to shine His love through us. I think often we are so scared of being tolerant of sin that we forget to show love. We should be gentle and kind to all we meet and allow God to love others through us! Just my thoughts for today..

I've been thinking over the past few days about how easy it is as a mama to take care of everyone else and not yourself. Everyone else eats right, gets enough sleep, drinks water, goes to the doctor and dentist but how often do we take good care of our own temples?

I was really convicted about this about a year and a half ago when I weighed in at 241 lbs. I couldn't believe I'd let myself get that big. But more importantly I couldn't believe I had been that disobedient. That was NOT a healthy weight for me! Some time later I've lost 60 lbs but I still don't take care of myself that way I should.

Yesterday I found out that I'm going to need some major dental surgery. My teeth look okay but I've always had a hard time with them. Going go the dentist just wasn't a priority for me because there were so many other things to do! Now I'm going to have to have one wisdom tooth and several other teeth pulled and partials put in. Thankfully they're in the back so they won't be noticeable until I get this partials. But this is a direct result of not taking care of myself the way I know God wants us to. I'm paying for my disobedience!

So mamas, take care of those temples!! Don't neglect your own health even though you have many littles one to take care of. When we're disobedient by not taking good care of ourselves we harm our relationship with God and harm our own bodies! So be good to everyone else and yourself!

The past two days I have spent a lot of time spring cleaning! We have only lived here a year and I'm ashamed how dirty our house has gotten! So far I've tackled the children's rooms, the hall closet and the living room. Later this week I have to do the bedroom closests, the pantry and the office! ACK! So much to do!! I'm hoping when everything is cleaned and decluttered that it will make life much easier and things will stay clean longer. Does that make sense?? Here are a few examples of what I've been doing:

The childrens' rooms BEFORE:

And AFTER:

Hall Closet BEFORE (this was the JUNK closet) The coat rack bar has also broken and hadn't gotten fixed!!

AFTER:

We also decided this was too small to usre for a coat closet so DH is going to install shelves in this closet and we'll use it for homeschooling supplies, crafts and games! YAY!!

Living room BEFORE:

AFTER:

I feel so much better having this done!! After we finish the spring cleaning we'll paint the living room, hall and dining room. The living room will be a darker shade of tan just to give the room a little "pop"! I think the color is called "Peanut Butter". And the dining room will be two toned. I can't wait!

Thanks for letting me share!!