Judy's Journal

SPRING CLEAN-UP

Every year, people in Ukraine put great emphasis on 

SPRING CLEANING.  

Everywhere - people are out in the street painting the curbs and tree trunks white.  Sweepers are cleaning the dirt left over from the sand trucks.  Houses are being painted, yards are being cleaned up and flowers are being planted.  You see, we have just come through a very long, hard winter.  Things have been gloomy, dirty and dark.  The sun used to set low in the sky but now the sky is blue and the sun is shinning brightly.  Our temperatures have finally warmed-up enough so that we can shed the layers of clothing, sweaters, coats and boots. 

   Even the people in our church wanted to get the house of God ready for Spring.  Over twenty people came out last Saturday to clean, paint, plant and wash.  People toted curtains home to be washed.  Cushions were shook out.  They were so happy in their work.

 

Here Oleg, Vitia, and Ivan are painting. 
Below are pictures of some washing windows, cleaning fake flowers and radiators.

 

    Sometimes we need to have "Spring Cleaning" in our own spiritual lives.  We need to re-examine our heart and lives and  spruce things up -- Spring Cleaning.  Sometimes, we need a good strong scrubbing - a spiritual freshening up.  We need to remember that our our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Ghost (I Cor. 6:19). 

     In Colossians 3:8-10.  The Bible tells us some of the things we should put off. Many times, it is our hearts that really require some cleaning.  We must be in the habit of looking deep into ourselves to rid our hearts of any feelings, habits or emotions that are making them dingy and dull; envy, strife, jealousy, hatred, discontentment, impatience, unkindness, revenge. When these things reside in our hearts, they often manifest themselves in our tongues.

     When we make the effort to bring our hearts to God asking Him to do what only He can do, He will forgive our sinful attitudes and resulting actions and make our hearts new again. Then maybe we’ll be able to unearth some cherished treasures we thought were long lost; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control.

      Usually when we finish our spring cleaning, we look around and say that we'll never let things get so bad as that again and we determine not to let it happen. We should do the same for our spiritual house. Determine not to let it get dirty again. The only way to accomplish this is to keep it up daily by feasting on God's Word and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit to work in our lives. 

 We need to keep our lamps trimmed -- 

so that our light will shine in a dark dreary world.

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