As a teenager when my mom would tell me my room had to be cleaned before my weekend activities began, sadly my closet would look like this.
I would shove and hide everything in there in the hopes she wouldn't open the door and see my mess.My goal was to get out of the house as fast as I could.
That never worked out too well for me.....
And because I choose to hide my mess instead of cleaning it right the first time, I would have to start all over again missing out on whatever my weekend festivities I had planned.
Lesson learned the hard way......time and time again growing up.
As an adult the same lesson has been applied many times in my spiritual life.
Several times my daddy God came with instructions for me to clean up my emotional mess only for me to hide and shove them deep within the closet of my heart.
He was there to help me ,but sadly I choose to ignore him and close my eyes to my mess.
My closet (heart) was so full of messy emotions I had no room for any good in there.
( rejection, brokenness, anger, unforgiveness, pain, denial and fear)
I did not want to re live the situations that caused those emotions, instead I pushed them so far down if one was to open my closet door (heart), an avalanche would explode.
Thankfully our daddy God looks deep within our hearts.
He doesn't look to our outside appearance..........
He sees what is behind the plastic smiles.............
And He never gives up on us.
1 Samuel 16:7
But the Lord said to Samuel, " Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
It took me having to go back to my closet time and time again to finally start the cleaning process.
I got tired of standing in front of it, wishing it would all just disappear.....
I got to the point I had to surrender my mess of emotions to him and allow him to show me where to begin.
I remember a time telling him I can't do this, I just don't have it in me...........
Can we please just shut and bolt the door?
And just as my mom so many years ago told me no on shoving my closet full....
So did my daddy God.
He knew I could not move forward in life and receive the good by hiding my mess.
I told him I could not do it, I was not strong enough to tackle such a great task.
His response..............
2 Corinthians 12:8-9
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
It has been through HIS grace and his grace alone I've been able to clean my closet (heart) out.
I still have days when I'd much rather shut the door and forget what's in there, but in doing so I would be creating a new mess.....
A mess that I would have to eventually go back and clean.
It has been through my cleaning process I have learned how to let go of emotions that will hinder my future.....
I have learned it's normal and perfectly OK to feel these emotions in life, but it's not OK to pack and shove them so far into my heart that I have no space left for the good things.
( Love, forgiveness, grace, mercy and hope)
We all get emotionally messy from time to time in life but it's how we choose to deal with our mess that determines what our closets (heart) look like.
We can shove, hide and push the door closed until there is no room left.....
Or we can allow our daddy God to take each emotion and teach us how to clean our closets.
My closet is looking pretty good these days, it still has work to be done after all I am still a work in progress and I know that the work He has started in me, He will complete.
Messy Me~
xoxoxo
I would shove and hide everything in there in the hopes she wouldn't open the door and see my mess.My goal was to get out of the house as fast as I could.
That never worked out too well for me.....
And because I choose to hide my mess instead of cleaning it right the first time, I would have to start all over again missing out on whatever my weekend festivities I had planned.
Lesson learned the hard way......time and time again growing up.
As an adult the same lesson has been applied many times in my spiritual life.
Several times my daddy God came with instructions for me to clean up my emotional mess only for me to hide and shove them deep within the closet of my heart.
He was there to help me ,but sadly I choose to ignore him and close my eyes to my mess.
My closet (heart) was so full of messy emotions I had no room for any good in there.
( rejection, brokenness, anger, unforgiveness, pain, denial and fear)
I did not want to re live the situations that caused those emotions, instead I pushed them so far down if one was to open my closet door (heart), an avalanche would explode.
Thankfully our daddy God looks deep within our hearts.
He doesn't look to our outside appearance..........
He sees what is behind the plastic smiles.............
And He never gives up on us.
1 Samuel 16:7
But the Lord said to Samuel, " Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
It took me having to go back to my closet time and time again to finally start the cleaning process.
I got tired of standing in front of it, wishing it would all just disappear.....
I got to the point I had to surrender my mess of emotions to him and allow him to show me where to begin.
I remember a time telling him I can't do this, I just don't have it in me...........
Can we please just shut and bolt the door?
And just as my mom so many years ago told me no on shoving my closet full....
So did my daddy God.
He knew I could not move forward in life and receive the good by hiding my mess.
I told him I could not do it, I was not strong enough to tackle such a great task.
His response..............
2 Corinthians 12:8-9
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
It has been through HIS grace and his grace alone I've been able to clean my closet (heart) out.
I still have days when I'd much rather shut the door and forget what's in there, but in doing so I would be creating a new mess.....
A mess that I would have to eventually go back and clean.
It has been through my cleaning process I have learned how to let go of emotions that will hinder my future.....
I have learned it's normal and perfectly OK to feel these emotions in life, but it's not OK to pack and shove them so far into my heart that I have no space left for the good things.
( Love, forgiveness, grace, mercy and hope)
We all get emotionally messy from time to time in life but it's how we choose to deal with our mess that determines what our closets (heart) look like.
We can shove, hide and push the door closed until there is no room left.....
Or we can allow our daddy God to take each emotion and teach us how to clean our closets.
My closet is looking pretty good these days, it still has work to be done after all I am still a work in progress and I know that the work He has started in me, He will complete.
Messy Me~
xoxoxo
Stacey
Philippians 1:6
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus
Oh Stacey, as per usual your post is very timeous for me. Best I go check my closet out and start cleaning it out. No point sitting here and thinking about the closets of others.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, great kick in the buttt!
God bless,
Tracy
As always we both seem to be in each others heads!! :) I am glad this ministered to you my sweet friend as yours ministers to me always as well!!!
Deleteps.... I have some cleaning to do myself :)
xoxoxox
Stacey