Cleaning out Corners

Lately, we've done some rearranging here in the Hoskins house.  Our home is a formerly bank owned property that we bought cheaply, completely gutted, and then added our own touches and finishes.  Used to, when you walked in my front door, I had a large great room that was the size of two rooms, but we used it as our living area.  In the back of our house, there was a room we used as our formal dining area.  I grew tired of walking into my house and the first thing I'd see was our mess...scattered toys, Avery's walker, etc.  So, with some muscle from my husband, we changed our great room into a front living area and a dining room in the back half.  The old dining room we turned into a family room where I could move the toy basket, Avery's new positioning chair, our monitor and computer, our love seat and an old comfy recliner.  

I like to think of myself as a good housekeeper. If you ask my husband, he would say I'm close to obsessed with housework because I'm always doing it.  I disagree about the obsession, but I don't like to let it pile up and then attack; I prefer to keep things as tidy as I can as we go.  With 3 kids, that's a challenge!  But as we began moving our furniture, I told Phillip that what we uncovered made me feel a little bad about all that cleaning I do.  There were dust balls all along the walls, a cobweb or two, and random items that I had forgotten about that had been misplaced or hidden.  

I don't want to make too much of it, but I couldn't help but think of the spiritual application here. I can't speak for you, so I'll just speak for myself.  I like to think of myself as a clean living person, keeping myself pure in a sinful, dirty world.  But with a little closer inspection, I'm pretty sure there's some corners in my heart that I've neglected, some sins of omission I'm guilty of, and some clutter that needs disposed of properly.  Just like my house, it's often what others see that I focus on.  If the exterior is clean, most assume the rest is okay too.  While I believe the exterior is meant to be clean as well, I don't want to become one of those "whited sepulchers" that the Bible speaks about.

              ²⁷ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres,        which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.  Matthew 23:27

Every once in a while, I have to examine my heart closely and do some rearranging in there.  After all, that's where I really can't afford to let the dust creep in.