Garbage in, garbage out

Things we often forget to clean in the spring

by R. Douglass Mahaffey

The days leading up to the end of February and the beginning of March are often used to perform annual “spring cleaning.” These days are quickly approaching and people all over the world will be throwing out the old and making way for the new. But rarely do people take a look in their own hearts and remove things in their lives that are holding back the blessings of God.

While cleaning windows that we use to look outside to see things like the weather, if the grass needs mowing or the leaves need raking up, we forget to go outside of the box and pray for our families focus of life throughout the year. While we dust off things like television screens or VCRs and DVD players, we rarely think about considering what we watch with those electronic devices. 

Are our videos that we watch age appropriate for everyone in the house? Do the shows we DVR on television fill our heads with junk instead of positive, thought provoking influences? OUCH! I even have to watch out on that one. 

As we dust off our book shelves, do we notice that most of our books have anything to do with God and His will for our lives, or are they the naughtier romance novels or adult humor books? Don’t get me wrong, I love a good story about romance, and I love comedy, but garbage in, garbage out?

When we clean the screen and keyboard on the computer, are we considering how we spend our time using it? What kind of sites do we look up on the Internet? What kind of posts do we make on Facebook, twitter or Instagram? What kind of e-mails do we forward? 

Okay, everyone check to make sure you all still have toes, as I check mine. These are just thoughts that I was pondering today. I’m getting ready to do some spring cleaning around the house and I feel that cleanliness needs to start within.

Things that we rarely think would make a difference in our thought process, our habits, our speech, our time spent working, our meal times and our family outings will be better spent with a mind for the things of God if we clean out the rubbish that won’t matter tomorrow if we keep or not. 

Colossians 3:8-13 says, “8 But now that you put off all of these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.  9 Lie not to one another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.  10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him. 11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all and in all.  12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;  13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. 

Granted, not everyone struggles with everything mentioned in that passage. We all have our own individual struggles of sin to overcome. Each person’s struggles are different from another’s. But the attitude of the scripture that I shared is that we are new creatures in Christ if we have Him in our hearts. The old is forgotten and all things are made new. We shouldn’t be drawn to the same thankless habits we had when we were sinners. Our desire should be to run headlong into obedience to change ourselves from the things we once did and die to that sinful desire. 

God gives each of us a choice of what we allow into our lives. If we allow things that God sees as a disgrace, it is up to us, when we come to the moment of realization that it is sin, to remove those things from our lives and fill the holes with things that would please God. God desires fellowship with us, but He can not be where sin dwells. Sin can only dwell in us because we allow it to. God can only dwell in us because we allow Him to. 

R. Douglass Mahaffey - Founder and Publisher of The Wise Conservative.