We’re getting ready to list our house. We’ve tried this once before, with no luck, so we’re giving it another go. To help our chances of a quick sell, we’ve been working on projects. We’ve had friends and family helping us as we replace, repaint, and repair places in our home we’ve gotten so used to we don’t even see them anymore:
The wall we experimented on by painting it navy blue.
The carpet that’s ridiculously old and worn.
The handle-less deck door.
The screen door that the previous owners painted purple.
The purple bathroom tile the previous owners installed.
The strip of leftover carpet under the bedroom closet door track. Also from the previous owners. Also purple. (They really had a thing for purple.)
We no longer see all these quirky little places in our home, but they stick out like a sore thumb to potential buyers. In the process of replacing, repainting and repairing, it’s given us new eyes with which to see our home and each item in it. I now have a much lower threshhold for “stuff”: tchotchkes, stuffed animals, toys, clothes (oh, the clothes! It’s like they multiply while in storage!), bottles in the bathroom, anything with an expiration date. And the cleaning. I mean. With three kids + a shedding-prone dog, our vacuum is getting quite a workout. It’s a constant state of purge/donate/scrub around here.
As we clean up years of life lived within these walls, I’m finding that, along with my kitchen cabinets, my heart is craving a good scrub and purge.
Toss old, unforgotten hurts and replace with forgiveness. Spackle up the cracks with gentle love notes from Scripture. Donate good deeds and kind words. Clean out the dark corners long neglected, giving them a good scrub to let light shine in.
What have I grown so accustomed to in my own heart and life that I don’t even see anymore, but may stand out to others?
Only when I look at myself from the outside in am I able to name {more than} a few. I can see my first instinct is to fight for myself instead of fighting for others. I can see the small chips on my shoulders have grown deeper, etched further into the bone. I can see that what I view as weariness, others may receive as complaint.
These quietly ugly qualities and characteristics I’ve grown used to have been given room to lurk and linger, to settle in comfortably like an old broken-in pair of shoes, and it’s time for them to leave. They need a kick to the curb, a throw to the dumpster, a sending to the bottom of the sea.
God isn’t dwelling on the dusty, stale, ugly parts of my heart and I don’t need to either.
Like a potential buyer for our home, Lord, give me fresh eyes to see the places long overlooked in my heart and life.
As we work through our house room by room, we’re finally able to see the comfortable dust bunnies and the cracks in the wall that never bothered us. But it’s time to make the place sparkle, to play up it’s premium attributes, to present it in the best light possible . . . and I want that for my heart, too.
What have you been overlooking in your own heart that could use a good scrub?
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Michele Morin says
Thank you, Anna! As I tackle projects on our home this summer, I’ll be thinking about the work that God the Holy Spirit wants to do on this fixer-upper of a heart-home for Jesus!
Rachel B says
Right on time Word!!
I am in the process of doing the exact same things…getting a house ready for market is no joke! And neither is dealing with our spiritual “house”. May God continue give us insight and courage to deal with this “stuff”.
Thank you for sharing!!
Jennifer Frisbie says
This resonated BIG with me today. We, too, were selling our home recently and have decided to stay. And strangely enough, now that we’re staying we see all of the little things we overlooked and want to change. We’ve been purging and donating for several weeks now and have SO far to go. It’s exhausting but freeing once a spot has been cleaned out and organized as we move on to the next. It’s amazing how quickly we accumulate without even knowing what’s in front of us.
I know that’s the same in my spiritual walk. When I let my armor down I can become a magnet for the things I don’t want to be. Suddenly I’m carrying around baggage of comparison, lack of confidence – or fragments of unforgiveness that didn’t look like unforgiveness at the time. I, too, want my heart to sparkle and not be laden with junk.
Thank you for the words today, Anna!
Marina Bromley says
Good words, Anna! Such a good comparison to your home renovations!
So good to see you last night at the meet-up in Springfield, MO!
I’m praying for God’s will on your home sale … and purchase to follow!
Rebecca Jones says
I’ve been going through things as well, do I really need that? I see so much clutter in my life and around the house. All I need to hoard is Jesus, but I have to share Him, too.
Beth Williams says
Anna,
May God bless the sale of your home quickly! I love purging. A hoarder I am not. Periodically I go through my clothes (mostly) and rid myself of unwanted or unwearable items. This makes room for new fresh items. God has done a remarkable work on my heart over the years. I have become less angry and more calmer. I pray He prunes and works on my heart more and more taking away all the junk that the evil one puts there and makes room for more of Him!
Blessings:)
Christina Wienroth says
Dear Anna,
thank you for your article – all cleaning and housework can be so helpful in the attempt to stay praying during the day. God has a lot to do to clean our hearts and to help us to get whole again. For me it’s very important that I ask Him to show the ugly places of my heart – otherwise I too easily focus on my efforts in doing spiritually well – the things He reveales to me are possible for me to remove from my life by His grace.
In one point I can’t agree. Think God dwells in our hearts from the moment we invite the Holy Spirit to come – He is not waiting outside of us till we are ready with cleaning – for He would never be in our hearts then as long as we live. But may be you didn’t want to say that (I’m not a native speaker and so I may have misunderstood…). It’s good that God loves us and is with us and in us – and it’s good that we are enabled by Him to change and to make Him feel at home in us and ourselves too.
Samie Jo says
We are also in the overwhelming process of selling our home. I shared your article with my family, and we all agreed that the Lord definitely had you speaking to us today. Thanks for giving us a laugh and for inspiring us to look to our hearts for a tune up too!