Liesel’s Room
While I was hunting and watching football over the last week, my dear wife’s project was to repaint and redecorate, our middle daughter’s room (which her mother, Laura, had stripped and repaired). She did that, with some help from our daughter, and the results are cute! But.. this wasn’t just a repainting job…
As my wife finished the painting and was cleaning up the room, she began to notice some smudges on the woodwork from the painting, and wiped those up. She then noticed that some of the furniture wasn’t clean, and wiped that down. She rearranged the room, put up pretty curtains, redid the closet, hung a closet rod, and put a dresser in the closet; but when she was “done” with the room, something still wasn’t right.
As my wife poked through some of the things in Liesel’s room, she noticed that there were dirty clothes here and there. She noticed that there were some toys and things of value in and among old papers, magazines, and candy wrappers.. things of value, but in with trash so that you couldn’t tell one thing from another. In fact, almost every drawer in the several dressers and containers had a mixture of clean clothes, dirty clothes, and trash! My wife carried three trash bags full out of that room when she was done cleaning, and I am not talking about the white tall ones.. I mean the Hefty large black ones. Now the room was completely tidy, with everything in its place.
Will the room stay this way? Not magically, but Liesel was SO grateful for a “new room” that she has vowed to keep it clean by working a bit each day and changing her habits so that she can keep her room as clean as it is right now; right after Mommy made it beautiful and new.
Readers, I’d like to suggest that Liesel’s Room is much like our heart when Christ comes in. Often, we are saved and things change quickly and dramatically, like the room being repainted; but there are still many hidden areas – areas that we aren’t even sure exist – that needs cleaning and only someone with experience can help us identify these and work them out with our Lord. This is why the community of believers is so important!
Once our hearts are clean, we must keep them that way, because if we don’t, more dirt and grime will rush in than before! (Luke 11:24-26) An accountability partner, daily prayer, and daily study are excellent ways to ensure that there is no room for the evil one to enter into our shiny new heart!
Finally, just as Liesel will have to spend a few minutes each morning polishing up her room, we must hit our knees and give our hearts over to the Lord – completely – every morning we awaken. Only in this way will they stay clean and shiny.
