Spring Cleaning

Spring Cleaning

by Doris Lakey

Spring! When new life springs up in glorious Technicolor!

Tiny green buds bursting, reaching for the sky, wildflowers

sweeping across the prairies,  new lambs and baby chicks

stumbling to follow their mothers around, learning how to

behave by copying behavior of their elders.

Humans do that too. We try to copy behavior of others we

admire, until we learn we are unique individuals and can’t

successfully be other than who we are.

Who are we?  A creation by God in His own spiritual image,

designed to find happiness only in His presence. We too

stumble, wander, trying many experiences searching for our

destiny, our true Home, not knowing at first Who or what

we yearn for.

Spring is a time of renewal, new energy, a good time to clear

away cobwebs and dust we’ve allowed to settle into our minds

and hearts, building new spiritual growth, dumping bad habits

we have allowed to settle in comfortably during a winter, sitting

by the fire, watching  television.

Plant new seeds into your life during this growing season, study

your road map (the Bible), consult a tour guide (a church), let

the Holy Spirit nurture the sprouts and soon you will find new

growth blossoming in your heart, new fruit in your life. Maybe,

depending on where you are in your journey Home, you will

discover a new life.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only

begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not

perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the

Son into the world to judge the world, but that the

world might be saved through Him.

 John 3:16

And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come

back again and receive you to myself, that where I

am, there you may be also.

John 14:3

What to do when your lip is in your lap

Written by Doris Lakey 

There comes such a day in each of our lives when everything

gets difficult and you feel like you are in so deep a hole you

can’t see daylight. Your world shrinks down to no further than

arm’s length around you.

My grandmother used to describe those desperately lonely or

troubled times as having her lip in her lap or her nose on her

naval. Those mental images were her way of using humor to

lessen her depression until she could get her Christian faith

jump-started and get back on track.

That shrunken world view of all possible bad outcomes sometimes

left her temporarily too paralyzed to see beyond her problems to

remember the myriad of blessings available to her, even on her

worst day. Eventually she would begin to count her blessings,

look up to remember she was not alone and she could again

stand strong.

Okay, we may not have health, a houseful of loved ones and

friends or an expensive car or important job by this world’s

standards, but start with basics: fresh air, sunshine, rainbows

behind each raincloud, a Bible full of promises from our Holy,

living God who loves us even when we whine about how cruel

this world is to us. Remember who we’re talking to about our

concerns—He is the one wearing that crown of thorns! He’s

been there, done that and yet he loves us, promises to go with

us through the darkest days all the way to “happily ever after”.

And that’s no fairy tale.