Summer will be officially ended this Monday when the girls go back to school. Rachel is looking forward to her sophomore year, although she can't get used to the word "sophomore" yet because she loved saying the word "freshy." Michelle is ready to fly at middle school, and is excited to be changing classes six times, and being back with her friends.
It was a great summer for us that started with All Star Softball for most of June. Vacation Bible School and our own family vacation in July, and trying to hold on to the last weeks of summer and make them last in August. Rachel got her permit, which is really odd for all of us. I remember being behind the wheel and learning to drive, which is why seeing Rachel behind the wheel is scary! Let's just say we both over-react in much the same way.
One of the highlights of my summer was hosting a Bible Study for middle school girls in La Verne. It was a great time with Michelle, and the other girls that I adore in our community of friends. I think you always learn the most when you are put in the position of being the teacher. I knew I was doing something right when on each Monday something would happen that would attempt to rob me of preparation time and a free spirit. In other words, Satan was trying to discourage me (car problems, broken hot water heater, allergic reaction to CT, etc...) and I knew I was doing something good if he was working so hard against me.
One of the last lessons the girls and I studied was about true beauty and what is going on inside our hearts. I drove home this Godly principle by using a house down the street for an illustration. This house in on a very well traveled street in our area. Most of us pass this house on the way down the hill to school or shopping. It started as an average house in a planned community of other homes that looked the same. New owners came in and started remodeling the entire inside and outside. We all watched as this house transformed to a beautiful (now custom) home. I am sure I was not the only one that admired the lovely details of this home, and wondered what it looked like inside.
In the middle of summer, the house went up for sale. Jon and I said to each other that we would love to look inside that house. We have a good friend that is a Real Estate agent, and we knew that he would have seen the house. Jon and I could have not been more shocked at the news. The owners of the house had to abandon it because of mold! Apparently, they cut corners and things did not get properly sealed, perhaps cheap material was used, and the house is so full of mold that it will have to be gutted and practically knocked down to the ground.
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19,20
My lesson for the girls had nothing to do with the real owners of that house. I do not know them, and I am making no judgement about them. But it is a good lesson for us all on what is being seen by others and what is really going on inside our house (your body and mind). Our body is our temple, and it should not be a place of glitz and beauty on the outside, and corrupt on the inside. Have you ever known a person that looks all put together and well dressed, but when you really got to know them they were ugly because of their attitude, gossip, boasting, greed, or selfishness? Have you ever had your mouth water for a beautiful piece of fruit and then open it up and find there is a worm inside?
It is easy to find fault in others, but there are times when we need to take inventory of our own life and look at the ways our attitude and actions are stunting our spiritual growth, AND perhaps the spiritual growth in others. God's effectiveness is either enhanced or hindered by the way we live. People, and kids, are watching. This is especially true if you are trying to teach about life in Christ. Others learn by what they see, not always by what they hear.
Scripture tells us that we need to be a light of Christ, and a city on a hill for all to see. This is not only for God's glory, but for our own good. If our house is not cleaned up inside, then it is not good for the very health of your own being. If disappointment, anger, envy, depression, (to list a few) are consuming you inside, then your house is unhealthy. Only the love of God can clean up these things.
I am most of all a teacher to my own girls, and so I have taken inventory and discovered some things I need to work on. I don't think I need to make it a long list (although I could), but I have been prayerfully asking God to reveal to me what He would like me to work on. I am not saying that change is easy, but it is good to take stock and try to redirect some potential damage that could effect the overall look inside our house. I love this prayer:
Wherever I am, whatever I do,
O God, please help me to live
in a way that makes me credible
as your representative. - Egner
Summer is over, but I am looking forward to getting back to writing (I took a little break from electronics), and getting back to a schedule that is more balanced and purposeful. I have some books to share with you that I read over the summer. And, I am sure that that I will have some personal house cleaning stories ahead. I am always a work in progress!
God Bless,
Sandy
