In this season of life, I’ve had the opportunity to clean for a couple of families in order to help provide for our family while still keeping the flexibility we need in our schedule. I 𝓇ℯ𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 enjoy it! 💕
It started out as helping my mom with just one house after she got into a car accident. And now I’ve taken on one more who asked me if I could help out because it’s their family’s especially busy season.
One of the reasons I really enjoy this time is that it gives my introvert self a few hours of quiet, while I clean, to just sing praise music, or pour out my heart to God in prayer!
It’s a win-win, because after that time the client has a clean house and can feel less stressed, and not only does it help pay our bills, I feel like that time with God allows Him to “clean house” in me, in the spiritual “house” which is my heart and soul and mind.
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My husband and I really enjoy providing hospitality to people in our home. I think it’s one of the spiritual gifts God has given us as a couple, to serve others with. It’s a 𝓅𝓁ℯ𝒶𝓈𝓊𝓇ℯ to host people for dinner, or coffee, and to chat! We always come out of that time feeling lighter and refreshed, for having shared it.
In the past few years, He has extended that to helping provide hospitality in our church home. Helping set the atmosphere, serving how we are needed, making others feel at home. And that has been a joy too!
And now- now I find myself learning about hospitality in a 𝓃ℯ𝓌 kind of way!
Until I began this work, I thought of cleaning houses only in the physical sense, but as I’ve begun, I’ve found it a unique opportunity to provide hospitality to another family, in their own home.
Who doesn’t like, when on vacation, to come back to a refreshed room — beds made, clutter cleared, floors swept, bathroom sanitized? 🪴
It’s part of the mental break!
Extending that into your own home is a great way to bring some refreshment even when you can’t get away on vacation!
I remember as a momma working 40+ hours a week, how much I would have loved to have someone help me with laundry 🧺 which always felt like my arch enemy lol.
At one point, even while working from home, I did have a friend I paid to come do only that. Just to help me fold laundry so I didn’t feel like “folding the towel” before it was time and calling it quits.
Sometimes we all just need a little help lightening our load. 💕
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But anyway, the cleaning itself isn’t why I’m writing this post, which has been on my mind for weeks now. Rather, it’s the spiritual refreshment I want to talk about.
Have you ever heard the phrase “be kind to your own mind”? ☀️
Sometimes the kindest thing you can do for your mind, your spiritual “house”, is to invite someone in to clean it up.
Do you ever get so overwhelmed by your thoughts that it’s hard to function?
Do the worries of this life ever pile up like dirty dishes on your counter?
Does the “dirty laundry” that you don’t want to air out, (and rightfully so because it is never a good idea to just vent on social media), pile up because in your aim to not vent you simply don’t share about your struggles 𝒶𝓉 𝒶𝓁𝓁?
Does your mental to-do list ever pile up to the point you feel trapped in your own mind, like you’re living in a mental hoarder-house of sorts?
I have some good news for you today, if so!
There’s help available!
There’s Someone who 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉𝓈 to come in and clear those things away periodically (and as often as you need!)
There’s someone who doesn’t mind scrubbing your residual guilt away, and adorning your “home” with the gift of ℊℴℴ𝒹 & 𝒷ℯ𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒾𝒻𝓊𝓁 thoughts! 💕
His name is Jesus!
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The thing about a clean and refreshed home is…we can feel more 𝒶𝓉 𝒽ℴ𝓂ℯ in it. And we can help others feel more at home with us there too!
The same goes for our spiritual houses.
We not only feel so much better when we regularly have the junk and the residue cleaned out of our minds and hearts, but we become so much more hospitable and approachable and welcoming to others around us too!
When we take the time to 𝓉𝒶𝓀ℯ fresh breaths of Spirit-air, we find others sharing that when they’re around us it feels like a fresh breath of air! (And we know that has nothing to do with our own selves, and everything to do with the One who has come in and “kept house” for us! Praise God, He is a life saver!)
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To me, it doesn’t feel like work that is “beneath me” to clean someone else’s toilets. (And that’s a work itself that God has done in me, because I’ll admit there was a time when I felt bitter about even having to be the one in ℴ𝓊𝓇 house whose duty it was to clean the toilets.)
But now, He has made this “burden” easy and light, as I focus not on the chores my body is doing but on what He is doing in refreshing my mind!
Now it feels like a joy to know that my simple tasks can truly lighten someone else’s load and make their day feel brighter and their home more fresh!
And when I write or we podcast to encourage, or simply communicate with people one on one to provide the same— that’s an honor and a privilege too!
It’s a joy to help others in the same way He helps me, sending icky thoughts out and welcoming fresh and beautiful ones in!
And it’s even more of a joy teaching others how to go directly to the Source of the best refreshment (Jesus) so that He can 𝒸ℴ𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓃𝓊𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 renew and restore them!
What an opportunity!
Isn’t the Holy Spirit amazing?!
Who are we, that He is willing to come in and provide hospitality 𝓉ℴ 𝓊𝓈 {you, me, anyone who will accept it} in our own homes? ☀️ ☀️ ☀️
He constantly amazes me with grace!
If you’ve never had your spiritual house cleaned, simply 𝒶𝓈𝓀 Jesus about it today! Be honest about your mental messes and humble about needing His help. I know He would love to come in and do that for you! He is the BEST.
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“At that time,” declares the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people…” “I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.” — Jeremiah 31: 1, 25 NIV
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