Lessons from my Wall Washing

Spring is here and as the weather has become nicer, I began to notice how dirty my walls are.  In the winter, we use wood heat and the soot made the walls and ceilings a slightly darker color not to mention the fingers prints and scuffs from having kids around.  Since I am at school every day I had decided to put off this chore of washing the walls until summer. Then this week I had the idea that maybe I could do one room on Monday when I go into school later.   Mondays is also when my cleaning lady comes to help clean the house so I won’t have to do all the work.  That morning  I even get up at 5:30 to get started on the higher parts since my cleaning lady is short.  By the time she arrived, I had washed the top part  and had My cleaning lady brought some efficiency to the operation with her idea of using a wet cloth followed by a dry cloth.  She also had the idea to use a broom with the cloth on top to do the ceiling instead of me standing on a chair trying to make even strokes.  Her way was easier and looked nicer.  She took over the ceiling and I went back to conquering the walls.  Halfway through it actually looked worse than when we had started.  But little by little each wall began to look clean and new or almost new.  At the end of the day, it was great to walk into this room and find everything all clean.  No fingerprints on the wall.  The ceiling no longer had a slight gray look.  Now here and there you can tell I might need to do a bit of touching up where we missed a spot or two especially at the top but it looks much better.

As I listened to my music and scrubbed away, I thought about how God often works in cleaning the walls of my heart.   We often have winter seasons in our life and after the season ends, the sun shines on the dingy walls revealing the bad attitudes, lazy habits, and other wrong behaviors. We ask for forgiveness and according to his mercy he forgives us but it can take retraining for new attitudes and good habits to form.  Just like the walls, the process may be messy and take some work.  The product may even look worse for a while before it gets better.   Also like washing the walls, friends and family can help.  They may just be there to love on you as you seek to change.  They may have some good suggestions and ideas about how to go about the process.  They may even be going through the process with you.  Some days I look at the wall of my heart and think they will never be clean but then I remember Philippians 1:6 that says, “being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Dear God, You see those attitudes and habits that have no place in my heart and life.  Reveal these to me.  Forgive me for holding on to things that are not part of your perfect will.  Help me to become more like your son in my words and actions.  Amen