31 Days To Clean Challenge Day 3

This day was all about how to give life to your home. How to raise your family’s home life above the level of mere existence. There were a list of 10 ways in the 31 Days to Clean book, but I will just share a few of my favorites
1. Retrain our tongues to give words that encourage, comfort and edify others.

2. Make our homes a place of grace where mistakes and sins are not met with anger but with love and hope.

3. Decorate our homes to make home a place of jewelry. Beauty raises life above the level of mere existence.

4. Play praise or worship music to lift everyone’s spirits. (Even king Saul in the Bible, when the Holy Spirit had left him, was refreshed and calmed by David’s worship.)

5. Ask the Lord, “What areas of our home are causing stress or bringing spiritual/emotional/mental deadness? What can I do to bring life to those places instead to make them a place of refuge?”

What are some other ways you can think of to “bring life” to your home environment?

The Martha challenge was to dust the top of the refrigerator and shelves, and clean and shine the kitchen cabinets. I never think to dust the top of the fridge!! It’s especially important for me to so though because my husband is tall enough to see the top of it every time he walks by. I can’t see it unless I stand on a chair. lol. I don’t want him to see that dusty mess all the time though so I’m trying to remember to keep up with it.
31 Days To Clean Challenge Day 3.

31 Days To Clean Challenge Day 3

This day was all about how to give life to your home. How to raise your family’s home life above the level of mere existence. There were a list of 10 ways in the 31 Days to Clean book, but I will just share a few of my favorites 🙂

1. Retrain our tongues to give words that encourage, comfort and edify others.

2. Make our homes a place of grace where mistakes and sins are not met with anger but with love and hope.

3. Decorate our homes to make home a place of jewelry. Beauty raises life above the level of mere existence.

4. Play praise or worship music to lift everyone’s spirits. (Even king Saul in the Bible, when the Holy Spirit had left him, was refreshed and calmed by David’s worship.)

5. Ask the Lord, “What areas of our home are causing stress or bringing spiritual/emotional/mental deadness? What can I do to bring life to those places instead to make them a place of refuge?”

What are some other ways you can think of to “bring life” to your home environment?

The Martha challenge was to dust the top of the refrigerator and shelves, and clean and shine the kitchen cabinets. I never think to dust the top of the fridge!! It’s especially important for me to so though because my husband is tall enough to see the top of it every time he walks by. I can’t see it unless I stand on a chair. lol. I don’t want him to see that dusty mess all the time though so I’m trying to remember to keep up with it. 😉

31 Days to Clean- Having a Martha House the Mary Way

I recently discovered Sarah Mae’s 31 Days to Clean: Having a Martha House the Mary Way, and after reading the first little bit I was really excited about it and I’m taking the challenge. 🙂 (By the way this is not a review and nobody asked me to write about this book.)
The first day is all about why I want a clean home. You know, besides needing to keep rats away. 😉 The challenge says to create a sort of mission statement about why you want your home to be a haven. Without purpose it’s hard to feel very driven. Sure you want a clean home, but cleaning isn’t fun for most people, so if you don’t have a clear purpose and inspiration you will probably get bored and not feel all that motivated to do anything beyond the bare necessities. But Sarah says it better, so check out her book 🙂
Just for fun though I thought I’d share my thoughts and inspiration through the challenge, starting with my mission statement.

“I believe that God is an orderly God as evidenced by creation, and when we are orderly it brings glory to Him and ministers to us. Our home should be free of dirt and clutter and full of warmth and love.
I want our home to be a haven for Josh. I want it to be a beautiful and peaceful place for him to come home and unwind, a place he can’t wait to get home to because of the love and life and peace here.
This should be a welcoming place that our friends and family love coming to as well. It should be a place that brings glory to God by it’s order and cleanliness together with it’s warmth and love. A place that is ready for hospitality on short notice and that we can use to minister to others.”

I printed it out, decorated it and taped it to the inside of our medicine cabinet so I’ll see it often 🙂 Imm sure my mission will change slightly as years go by, so I called it “Britt’s Clean Home Mission Statement 2013”.