Receptacles

Last week, I did a MAJOR cleaning in our house. Things had just gotten out of control and there were messes everywhere! I have say that the boys room was the worst it has been in a long time. It took us nearly two hours to get to a place where I could vacuum the carpet and close the closet doors again. They had clothes and toys everywhere. When we finished, I had the boys sit on the floor with me and we had a little talk. I asked them why they thought it was so hard for them to keep their room clean. Jonathan piped up, as he usually does, and he said, "We don't have any place to put our dirty clothes and our toy boxes aren't big enough". I looked in the corner where their hamper use to be and, sure enough, it wasn't there. I looked at their toy boxes and they were both overflowing. Because there was a lack of a place to put dirty clothes, they ended up on the floor, on the bed, under the bed, in the closet and in the toy box. Granted, they could have just made a pile in the space where the hamper used to be, or they could have asked me where the hamper was, but they didn't. I retrieved it from my room (oops), and put it back in it's place. We still need to go through the toy box. They hold on to EVERYTHING (gee, I wonder where that trait comes from?), so there is not enough room for all they have. Time to do some thinning out, some donating, and some trashing of broken toys!

This morning, as I was doing my Monday maintenance of the rooms, I went into the boys room and picked up the full hamper and looked around. Their floor was neat. Their closet was orderly. Only one sock under the bed. Amazing. So, as you can imagine, it got me thinking, as these things usually do.

I began to ponder how having a proper receptacle, in this case a hamper, enabled the boys to keep order in their room, and please their mother. Yes, they had to put some effort into it. They had to walk over to the hamper and put the clothes in, but there was a place to receive it, ready and waiting. Just like in our physical lives, our spiritual lives need to have a receptacle to receive spiritual things. We have to purposely create a place where the Spirit of the living God can deposit into us. A container where we can receive all that the Holy Spirit wants to fill us with. Sometimes we have no container at all. We have too many other things on our plate, sometimes even "churchy" things, that we have allowed to take up all the room, neglecting to designate a special place just for the things God wants to download into our lives. Other times, we have a receptacle, but we have allowed it to become filled with other junk, like the boys toy boxes where I found toys, clothes, school papers, movies, etc...so that when the real important things come our way there is no more room left. Sometimes our receptacle is there, empty, waiting to be filled, but because we haven't taken the proper care to maintain it, there are cracks and holes, and the things that God wants to pour into it, spill out and are wasted. I am entering a new place with the Lord. A place where I want to be in a position to receive and pour out, receive and pour out, where the Lord can use me to touch those around me. I want to have more of a kingdom vision, rather than the same old same old. So today, I am taking some time to get my receptacle in tip-top shape. I am getting into His word. I am praying. I am spending time in His presence, just Him and me. I am fine tuning my instruments, and sharpening my weapons. I am dusting out the cobwebs of religiosity and setting my vision on those things that are of eternal value. Luis and I are stepping out in faith more now than we have ever done before. And now, more than ever, we are acutely aware of how much we need to be ready vessels for the Spirit of God to pour into, transform, transcend barriers, and touch His creation that He loves so dearly. Make us ready Lord. Help us to do our part. Have your way in us.