Get Organized!

"For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is."

Colossians 2:5

Today I was thinking about all the things I can't (or don't) do well.  One of those things is to keep my house orderly.  As many of you know, we home educate our children.  The new school year is about to begin (in 3 days) and I still don't have everything my idea of "ready," so I wondered outloud to God.  His answer to me came by way of a devotional buried in the middle of Colossians. 

I haven't written anything on here in over a year but, I thought this would be a perfect addition.  I can't take credit for this though.  God inspired Emilie Barnes to write this years and years ago.  My desire is that it will help you as much as it has helped me.


From 'A Sense of Order', by Emilie Barnes as printed in the Women's Devotional Bible, Volume 2

"A home [filled with a welcoming spirit] has a sense of order about it.  A sense that people, not possessions, are in charge of the household...that life is proceeding with a purpose and according to an overall plan.

Most of us respond positively to that kind of order in our lives because we are made in the image of God, and because God organized the whole universe to proceed in an orderly fashion.  Think of the creation, when God created a beautiful, populated globe out of the darkness and chaos.  He is the ultimate organizer, and the results of his ordering Spirit are always good.  We automatically feel more comfortable and more welcome when we sense his kind of order in our lives.

On a truly welcoming home, organization takes its proper place in the overall scheme of the universe.  The daily chores of maintenance become something we can glory in, partly because they don't overwhelm us or define our whole existence.

Don't let this talk of order and organization make you feel guilty or panicked.  Even if chaos and clutter in your home and life are wearing you down, the solution is not a whirlwind effort to "get organized."  Unless you begin with the heart, the most complete reorganization of house and home will just give you a clean slate for chaos - and may drive you and everyone else crazy in the process.

We humans weren't made to "get organized."  We were made to live as God's children, worshiping him and delighting in him.  As we open our hearts and attitudes to God, putting him first in our lives and looking to him for guidance, he will show us little ways to organize the chaos and lead a more peaceful, ordered existence.

And it doesn't have to happen all at once.  It has taken me thirty years to develop the systems that help me maintain order...in my life - and I'm still learning."

So rest assured, little hearts, God is not finished with us yet...and His plans are timely and beautiful.

© 2011 Mary Hughes Walker