Please Clean My... Heart

Thanks so much for commenting yesterday!  It was fun to read your tips on keeping your house in order.  And it was interesting to see how at different stages in family life, cleaning looks different.  I eagerly await the day when the little hands around here can help- and when I can clean while they sleep.  (Right now- it's all about sleeping when they're sleeping!!) 

I'm glad the mommies who work full-time commented, too.  It's wonderful that you can hire someone to help or simply accept the fact that the house is going to be a little messy during this stage. 

All of this reminded me that I forgot to mention the most important part:

Aren't you glad God is more concerned with the condition of our hearts than the condition of our homes??

He's looking for hearts that love Him above all else.
He's looking for hearts that happily help their husbands.
He's looking for hearts that are submissive to His will.
He's looking for hearts that sacrificially love the children that He has given them.
He's looking for hearts that eagerly open their home and share their resources.

So the physical things we do are important.  Our families should be able to walk around our homes without fear of tripping over a million things.  We should be able to prepare food in a relatively sanitary kitchen.  We should be able to wear non-smelly clothes : )

But in the end, God is not looking at how clean, or unclean, our homes are.  He's looking at how clean, or unclean, our hearts are.  And He's the only one who can scrub those clean. 

He's really great at it, too.  You simply have to ask him : )

Psalm 51^[a]

For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
² Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
⁶ Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.

¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
¹⁵ Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
¹⁷ My sacrifice, O God, is^[b] a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.

¹⁸ May it please you to prosper Zion,
to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
¹⁹ Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
in burnt offerings offered whole;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.