They say a house is only as clean as its corners.
I don’t know how many times I have resolved to get my house cleaned from top to bottom! Something always interrupts, and sabotages my best intentions. I may get the top done or maybe the bottom, but never from one end to the other. There is always one area I put off because I just don’t want to face it until I absolutely have to. Then there are creepy places like under the basement stairs. You see my house is over 100 years old, and try as we may, dirt sifts through the stairs and falls beneath making a dusty mess which I hate to tackle. You can’t stand up so you are working bent over, and I feel vulnerable to every creepy crawly thing ready to drop down on me. (I swear there are 100-year-old spiders living under there!) My house is only as clean as its dirtiest corner! Have you ever gone into a public restroom and being relieved that it is so clean until you are in the stall and turn around and see the dirty corners the janitors neglected. Suddenly that restroom doesn’t feel so clean because the corners were left dirty.
It is the same way with our personal life, if there are some corners of our life that we have neglected to clean, we have failed to accomplish our new resolution. Some of us have dirty little secrets, like following questionable things on the internet, watching movies (like x rated) that don’t enhance our lives, or sneaking through the fast food lane, even though we are not even hungry, or drinking alcohol, saying it’s 5:00 somewhere. A lonely bag of cookies doesn’t even know what hit it, because it was emptied in one day by one person. The dirty little corners of our lives can pollute our resolution to be a better person, and live a Christ like life. Take care of the little corners and tackling the rest will not seem so daunting. Here are a few simple steps that may help you achieve your goals: 1. Keep your mind clean; 2. Avoid temptations; 3. Establish a form of accountability with a friend or loved one; 4. View others with the eyes of God’s grace; 5. Fill your mind with the Word of God.
As parents we need to teach our children to keep from developing bad habits. Over eating is a habit most of us indulge in. We have to be good examples and gentle persuader to help our children be the best they can be. There are many Bible verses that can help you instruct your child without using guilt, and destroying their self-confidence.
We as authors have the distinct opportunity to help people find a way to make things in their life better, by giving them real life examples. We can use our medium to enhance the possibilities of change, by shining a light on what clean corners can mean, both in our houses, and metaphorically.
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalms 51:2, 7, 10
But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Colossians 3:8-10
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
II Corinthians 7:1