31 Days to Clean: Day 1

So today I started 31 Days to Clean: Having a Martha House the Mary Way. And I am pretty excited about it. Each day is only a page or 2 and the Mary/Martha challenges totally seem doable for me. Even though I seem to have less time at home as I am having to work more.

She starts the book off by asking "Why?", as in "why do you want a clean home". Its funny because I have never actually thought about it, it just seemed like something good you should have..right?  Well the Mary Challenge for today was to "identify specific reasons you want to make your home a haven" and to use scripture. She suggested framing your "mission statement" and putting it somewhere you will see each day. Ok, so here is mine:

I want to have a clean home to honor God by being able to open my home to others and have a peaceful haven not a chaotic distraction

I based my mission statement on 2 verses. I have both verses and my mission statement on index cards and plan to put them on my bathroom mirror.  The verses I used are:

1 Corinthians 14:33a- "For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace". I know that the context of this verse is about worship in the church, but I still think it applies. To worship is to exalt or lift up. And honestly if my home is a wreck, I would hate for that to distract others (including me and Justin) from having meaningful conversations about the goodness of God

1 Peter 4:9 "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling"-  While I would say I rarely grumble if we invited someone over or they offered to stop by, I WILL say that when that happens I am often thrown into a whirlwind to make my house not a disaster area.  I am not thinking about how sweet it will be to see Justin when he gets home, or how fun it will be to catch up with an old friend...honestly its usually about how much work I need to "get done"...a real "martha moment". 

My goal is not to have a picture perfect home. I am well aware I live with a toddler, I work outside the home, and I don't want a museum like home. I am ok with our home having a "lived in" look. I just also want it to be peaceful.

So here we go! And for real it really is never too late to pick up this little ebook and get started. There are free printables and tons of other resources at her website for book readers, so pick up a copy!