Paint

When I was younger, my mom worked a full-time job to support the family. She would then clean the whole house on Saturday. She did that by moving every piece of furniture so she could vacuum and clean where it had been. As a result, our house interior looked different every week. This was the source of the first argument my wife and I had. I wanted to move each piece of furniture to a new place each week. Having not grown up in the same environment as me, and being more sane than me, my wife did not want to rearrange furniture every week. I got over it.

In addition to frequently moving furniture, my mother wanted to paint the house interior about every other year. Of course, that meant the rest of us would do the painting. I grew pretty tired of this. I used to tell her that the livingroom used to be 10 feet by 13 feet, but now it was 8 feet by 10 feet, due to all the paint on the walls. I am not sure why she wanted the walls painted so frequently but I think it had to do with my dad’s smoking habit. She probably wanted to cover up the smoke stains and smell.

Isn’t that what we do with the bad parts of our character? Rather than dealing with and correcting our weaknesses, we try to cover them up. Jesus chided the Pharisees for being more concerned with appearances than with their hearts and souls.

Frankly I have never been too successful in trying to clean up my attitudes and behaviors in my own willpower. Fortunately, I have found that the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the Word of God can transform my character. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Why not let the Spirit clean house in your life?