Purse Within a Purse

I've found it helpful to carry a mini purse or fanny pack (such as shown above) to use as my main purse/wallet. I often carry a tote bag with several needed or possibly needed items in it. That's my "fashionable" thing. But for running into a store or for other errands, I just grab the fanny pack so I can attach it to my waist or use the shoulder strap. That way I'm living "light" and still have the main things I might need in a store or restaurant (i.e. cash, cards, very basic toiletry needs, hand sanitizer, phone) without lugging in the larger tote bag. It may not be the most fashionable thing, but it is functional. I'm thinking of ways to add a fashion touch to it...maybe a neat pin or scarf. We'll see.

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Getting Organized Requires Cooperation

1 Peter 3:8 CEV  Finally, all of you should agree and have concern and love for each other. You should also be kind and humble.

It's hard to get organized if the others who live in your home don't want to cooperate. Why don't they have the same vision for organizing as you do? Here are some possible reasons:

They don't have the same energy/personality as you do. Perhaps you are a fast paced person married to a slower paced person. You may attack a project very differently than they would.

They are afraid they won't measure up to your standards. Do you set the bar way to high in your home?

They get nervous if things are too organized. Believe it or not, ultra organization can lead to stress and a feeling of a rigid environment. I remember having a friend in high school who liked to come to our reasonably clean home to relax because at her home, there was a very strict level of cleaning. If you are always quickly cleaning up after people, (i.e. taking their soda glass to the kitchen before they even finish with it) you may create resistance to helping.

It's never good enough. Have their past efforts to help clean or organized been met with an "Oh, just let me do it" attitude from you? Have they been affirmed or criticized for their efforts?

These are just a few reasons why family members or roommates may not cooperate with your efforts to get organized. So, take a look at what Peter tells us above. It's more about how we treat others than having our own way. Are there some changes you can make in how you relate with those you live with?

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Goal Setting Part 3: Lack of Follow Up

Over the last few weeks, this series has been focusing on what works against us when we try to set and achieve goals.  I’ve been discussing some helpful information found in Ken Blanchard’s book, Know Can Do!.  Previously, I’ve discussed the negative effects of information overload and negative filtering.

This week, I’m taking a look at the concept of “lack of follow-up.”  Most people, after being exposed to new information or new material don’t have any kind of follow up plan.  Because of that, many of us revert back to our old routines.  Sound familiar? We need to put our newly learned knowledge or ideas or know-how into action.  We have to have a follow up plan. In goal setting, just as in learning and applying newly learned material, we need structure, support, and accountability.

Lack of Follow Up

Without immediate follow up after learning something new or deciding to implement a new behavior within our daily schedule, we will typically revert back to our old ways and habits.  The quicker we pull the trigger on using this new knowledge or implementing this new behavior, the greater the chance that we’ll be successful in our attempts to create sustainability.  Sometimes, we need help in getting the desired results in our lives.  Here’s where a coaching relationship can help provide you with structure, support, and accountability where goal setting and achievement is concerned. 

Structure:  Working with a coach will help a client focus on a limited number of areas where changes/improvements are desired.  With the assistance of a coach, the client defines a specific goal(s) and then maps out an effective strategy to move from where he/she currently is to where he/she wants to be in relation to that specific goal. 

Support: A coach will encourage a client to think differently about situations, opportunities and perceived obstacles. Additionally, a coach will guide a client in reframing an existing approach to reaching a goal in order to achieve the goal faster and easier. 

Accountability:  If you are committed to the coaching process, a coach can help you stay focused on your goal and why it’s important to you.  The coaching relationship helps you maintain the motivation and commitment you need to achieve your goals. Studies show that when you tell someone else about your goal and have a regularly scheduled time to meet with an “accountability partner,” you have a greatly increased chance of completing the goal successfully.  In fact, The American Society of Training and Development conducted a research project into the probability of completing a goal based on the actions a person takes related to that goal.  Information from that research suggests that the probability of completing a goal jumps to 95% if we have a specific accountability appointment with another person related to the implementation of our action plan to reach our goal.

Getting the Results We Want

For many people it is far more successful to have a professional coach, rather than a friend or family member, help them through the process of goal setting and accountability.  A professional coach is trained to walk a client through a structured type of questioning to help that person understand why the goal has priority his/her life.  Sometimes, when that first piece of the pie is examined, a goal can be restructured or thrown out entirely.  Because a coach has only the success of the client in mind, there are no hidden agendas. As much as we love friends and family, we cannot say the same of them. 

While our friends and family members may outwardly claim to want only the best for us, they may unintentionally hinder us from desired achievement due to their own negative filtering.  There are also other reasons this happens with people close to us.  In his book, Emotions Revealed, author Paul Ekman discusses the concept of emotional triggers being universal and individual.  Individual emotional triggers may be affected by the activity of each person’s own “auto-appraisers.”  He suggests that we have built in “appraising” mechanisms that are continually scanning the world around us in order to detect when something important to our survival or welfare is happening.  The auto appraisers to which he refers are our senses, simply put.  The conflict arises because everyone’s senses may react differently to the same situation. What one person’s auto-appraisers may tell him/her is scary, another’s may acknowledge differently. 

Because a coach doesn’t give “advice” or try to sway a client one way or another in choices, the client makes the decisions about which directions to ultimately take or avoid.  The very nature of coaching acknowledges that the answers are already within the client, but that the coach is needed to ask the right questions.  A great coach will be able to ask unbiased questions that provoke true and open responses from a client.  A close family member or friend might have a much tougher time handling biases from their own emotions, which in turn, would affect the truthfulness and openness of the responses from the same person (client). 

When I look back through my early life, my parents always attempted to provide structure and accountability.  The amount of support I received, however, was in direct correlation to whether the course of my action (whatever that was) met with their personal approval. That approval/disapproval was most likely influenced by their personal auto-appraisers. But whichever of those was offered to me, be assured that it peppered my own experience with one of two things: either additional confidence to move forward, or doubt about my chance for success.  

Later, as an adult, I can list more than one occasion where one parent’s fear regarding my suggested courses of actions could easily have kept me from taking necessary steps towards personal and professional achievement.  Although that parent’s love for me is unquestionable, fear drove the motivation for said parent. Although I understood where the fear originated, I refused to personally embrace it and ultimately allow it to stall my personal/professional growth.  Had I allowed the influence of fear to stop me in that situation, I would not have met my husband.  What a shame that would have been!

The follow up of implementing newly learned material or desired changes in behavior needs to be driven through structure, support, and accountability.  If you are someone who routinely has trouble reaching your goals or someone who feels stuck, realize that what you’ve been doing isn’t working.  First, examine whether the proper structure, support, and accountability exists for you on any level. Secondly, if it does exist, you may need to make changes relating to where you find it.  In other words, who influences your follow through and follow up?

Next Week:  Thinking through our goals

by Stephanie Baker

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Overly Organized?

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Have you ever met someone that was so organized that he/she was actually no fun to be around?

While this blog exists to encourage you in getting more organized, for the right reasons, we acknowledge that sometimes, this goal can be taken too far. Examples:

• a person who is so conscious of the condition of her home that you can't relax there for fear of making any kind of (even reasonable) mess
• children who seem stressed and angry because their chore schedule or home expectations are too strict and don't exhibit any creativity or flexibility
• a person who walks around with obvious arrogance because their home, car, life is more organized than the average person
• a person who cannot relax until their entire to-do list is done
• a person who gets angry when something interrupts the work they have done to organize the house (i.e. someone gets sick, some unexpected task comes up, or some project finished won't be enjoyed because the family has to suddenly go away, etc.)

These types of situations no more honor God than living in total disarray. Take a look at God's creation. It's orderly and systematic while still having areas of total abandon, awesome creativity, seasonal unpredictability, etc.

So be careful not to go too crazy with getting organized! Some of you may need to lighten up!

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Getting Organized Involves Our Emotions and Life Experiences

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Philippians 3:13 My friends, I don't feel I have already arrived. But I forget what is behind, and I struggle for what is ahead.

"That's not how I raised you to keep a house."

“My sister's house always looks far more presentable than mine.”

“Why does Grandpa insist on working in the yard so much? It's like he wants to impress people.”

“Mom and Dad are coming over. We've got to get this place cleaned up!”

“We always had to make our bed before school while I was growing up.”

Do any of these thoughts or words sound familiar to you?

More than we may like to admit, our approach to organizing our home is flavored by our emotions and life experiences. If we grew up in a very clean home, we may want to carry on that expectation, or we choose to rebel against it, embracing “freedom.” If our efforts at organizing were never good enough in the eyes of others, we may throw in the towel. If friends or family members make passing snide comments about how things look or feel in our home, we feel angry, devastated, or plagued with guilt. We prepare for company by exhausting ourselves so we can live up to an image of being organized and "together."

In Philippians, Paul talks about looking forward, not backward. He had a lot that could have tripped him up in life...guilt about his past sins before coming to know Christ, for example. Yet he strived to keep his eyes on the Lord and on moving forward, doing what God wanted him to do rather than live by the expectations of others.

This is not to say that our past experiences can't be a good teacher or guide for our future choices. Hopefully we learned some good things about home and life management from relatives or friends. But each of us is going to have a unique style in our approach to managing the homes and lives God has given us. Some of us are going to be detail oriented while others will fly by the seat of their pants. We will entertain at various levels...some loving to be elaborate while others choose the simple approach.

The key is what is in our hearts. Are we managing our home the way we do to impress others? To avoid the snide comments? Or to create an environment where others can relax? Where we can serve without undue stress?

Take some time to think about how past experiences and emotions play into how you manage your home today. Pray about what you discover and ask God to give you the right heart for organizing according to His unique plan for you and your loved ones.

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Preppy Pink Crocodile: Spa Water Recipes

Preppy Pink Crocodile: Spa Water Recipes

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Goal Setting 2: The Which of Goal Setting, by Stephanie Baker

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The Which of Goal Setting

Last week I talked about planning to acquire resources you need to complete your goal.  Equally important is discussing which obstacles that you may run into along the way to successful achievement of said goal.

When you try anything new, the biggest obstacle to your own achievement is ….well…uhm…er…YOU.  Let’s start there.  You are the person trying to integrate a new behavior change into your routine.  Your own brain, however, is wired against your attempts to change anything.  When we do something repeatedly, it becomes a habit (like eating whatever you want whenever you want and not caring about the choice involved). Over time, your brain develops a “memory” of that behavior habit and when you try to change it or alter it in any way, your brain fights that.  You may be successful a time or two, but then the old habit starts winning over the new one and you’re right back where you started. 

To break an old habit, you need to repeat the new pattern many times over.  Eventually, the old “memory” that’s associated with that old behavior habit will be overwritten by the new memory that you’ve now associated with the new behavior habit.  It’s a lot more scientific than I’m getting here, but for purposes of this blog – let’s try to keep it simple.  I think it’s important that  I address the fact that this is going on in any attempt to change an existing behavior to something new.  When you address that it’s just “not in your makeup,” you’re not giving yourself an excuse to fail, but rather you’re giving yourself greater power to succeed in spite of that challenge.  As a side note here, exercise actually helps you in this entire process – whatever the new behavior habit is that you’re trying to implement, exercising helps your brain in building the new “memory” that’s associated with it through something called neurogenesis.

There are other obstacles that you may run into along the way to reaching this new goal. It’s important that you look at your past performance to determine if there is anything there to give you a clue to what you may face again that could derail you. What has happened in the past that’s kept you from being successful in reaching goals?  How did you handle it?  Were you effective in dealing with that particular obstacle(s)?  What didn’t work in your effort to overcome it?  How might you approach this obstacle(s) differently this time with a more successful outcome?

It’s always helpful to run the idea of potential obstacles past other people who know you and support your efforts to reach your goals. You might be surprised to hear what others see in and around you that you may have missed.  Once you’ve identified the things that can (and have) pull you off course, work out strategies to deal with them should they happen.  Everyone is better with a plan.  It’s typically the unexpected thing that arises – the thing we didn’t think about and have no plan on how to deal with – that keeps us from staying on the forward track to achieve our goals.  To be forewarned is to be forearmed.  Essentially, this is the process of “risk planning/management,” for the goal seeker.

Next Week:  The “What-If” of Goal Setting

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Cell Phone Organization

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Many of us carry a cell or smart phone around, or some type of device like that. Here are some tips to keep it from getting cluttered.

On a regular basis, delete text threads. Depending on how much you text, you can quickly pile up a ton of messages, most of which are not something you have to keep for more than a day or two. Use the "delete all" feature to clean these threads out.

Once a week or so, erase your call log, the list of all the calls that have come in or gone out of your phone. If this scares you, make sure you go through it and save any numbers you don't already have.

Delete emails you are done with. If you use your phone to scan emails, delete the ones you have already acted on. In my case, I used Outlook on my desktop to "pop" other servers to download email. For those settings, I have the server delete the emails. However, for my phone and iPad, I have the setting leave a copy on the server. I mainly use those devices to monitor mail of the day, not act on it. I don't want to take the chance of the email not eventually getting to my Outlook box.

Check any task list or reminder apps on which you might have left yourself a note. I use Bug Me Lite to make quick notes to myself during the week because I can program them to pop up later. The lite version only lets me have 5 notes, which is actually good. I have to delete some to add others, and that is good. By the end of the week, I actually like that app to be empty!

And PLEASE (pet peeve warning!) Delete your voice mail messages once you have listened to them and/or acted on them. It's frustrating to call someone and hear "the mailbox is full." It's very easy to delete messages. Why keep a pile of them on your phone?

Why bother doing all this? Because your mind gets cluttered too, when it sees a bunch of visual reminders of stuff to do. Often there's not a need to make your mind go back over conversations again and again when action has been taken. Visual clutter tires us out...and since you look at your phone a lot, why have a cluttered one?

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Getting Organized Relates to Our Personality and Energy Cycles

Isaiah 58:11 NKJV  The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

Wow. Read that verse again. And maybe again! I need this reminder and may need work on memorizing this one!

This week in our study through Organizing from the Heart, we are reading and thinking about our personality and energy cycles. I think one of the setbacks we get into is that society (otherwise referred to as the unseen "they") sets a particular standard for how a person should live--how organized they are, what their home looks like, etc. Then many of us may try to match that standard regardless of whether it really fits the energy cycle or  personality God gave us. That leads to exhaustion. Exhaustion robs us from truly enjoying God and others.

So, taking the above verse, how would you apply that to your attempts at organizing?

The Lord will guide you continually.

Think about that. If you set your mind to walk with God throughout the day, He will guide you in the tasks and priorities you need to do. Imagine Him walking with you and ask Him, "What should I do next, Father?"

And satisfy your soul in drought.

God knows we regularly go through dry periods, based on anything from physical to emotional fatigue to relationship problems, work issues, etc. He is our first Source of watering.

And strengthen your bones.

God is the first resource to God to when you are bone tired (and even before.) Ask Him to strengthen you and to guide you in saying "no" to some things.

You shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

If you look to God first, trust and obey Him for His unique guidance in your life, you will regularly be replenished and have the strength you need to do what He wants. Notice the reference to water three times in one phrase. Water is essential to life. Jesus is the living water. Is it any wonder that many of us are drawn to water sources, such as rivers and the ocean? Take some time today to enjoy some water and ask God to refresh and replenish your energy so that you can not fail in what HE (not what everyone else) wants you to do.

Goal Setting 1: What Keeps Us From Attaining Goals?

We're happy to begin a series of weekly posts on the subject of goal setting, by Stephanie Baker. Visit us each Friday for the next post in the series!

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Because so many of us desire change in one area or another of our lives, but just can’t seem to actually make it happen, I thought it would be helpful to examine the idea of goal setting in greater depth. This is the first in a series of blogs that will post in the coming weeks about what goal setting really involves.  We’ll begin by examining what things work against us in our own mindsets when we try to change or implement newly learned things.  Then, we’ll examine the preliminary planning/thinking steps that are not only required, but also critical in setting and achieving goals. 

What keeps us from attaining our goals?

Why do we solemnly resolve to improve our situations, only to burn out in our attempts a few months (or weeks or days) after we start the process?  Why does this happen, year after year, for some of us?  Simply put:  we don’t do the necessary preliminary planning/thinking work it takes before we attempt to change/improve something about ourselves or in our lives.  When we don’t do the necessary preliminary work, goals can become a moving target and so can our own accountability for achieving them.  If we aren’t clear about our goals, much less the decisions we need to make surrounding them, how can we be held accountable for achieving them?  That’s the trap we gravitate towards – that’s the trap that makes it easy to be pulled off course. Even worse, it creates the situation we use to let our efforts to reach our goals fade off into the sunset. 

Not doing the preplanning is only a part of the problem we face in goal setting.  I think another huge reason we don’t successfully achieve when we goal set is that we don’t fully understand what works against us in our own minds and personalities before we even begin the process.  When we want to change one of our behaviors, we have to begin with what’s in our hearts and our minds.  Once our hearts and minds are changed, then the desired behaviors will follow.  So what is working against us?  What do we need to acknowledge before we begin to work towards our goals? 

Ken Blanchard’s book, ‘Know Can Do!’ gives us a good indication of what goes on in our own head when it comes to processing new information or thinking about implementing something new in our lives.  It examines the ideas of information overload, negative filtering, and lack of follow up as reasons that keep us from implementing new information that we learn (example: courses, seminars, and workshops).  Those three reasons are not just reasons working against us to learn new information and apply it in our lives.  They are also things working against us when we try to implement the changes that goal setting brings into our lives.

Information Overload

Information Overload is where we need to start.  Most of us can’t leave home without our own connection to the Internet. Many of us are joined at the hip to our mobile devices. We never stop checking email, Googling various subjects of interest, or spending time on Facebook.  We are over stimulated all of the time.  We have such easy access to so much information that we find ourselves virtually lost in it.  We study a little about a lot of things. Our areas of focus are skewed.  We tend not to focus on just one or two or three important areas of interest.  Rather than sharpening our knowledge in one or two or three areas, we learn a little about many things.   As a result, we never really become well-versed in any given subject of interest.  There’s never any real significant knowledge gain in any one area.

For example, many people take workshops and classes to learn ways to improve themselves (time management, organization, communication, etc), but those same people never really implement the new material they learn.  Weeks after coming back excited from a workshop, nothing of significant change has happened for the person who learned the new material.  There’s a gap between the newly gained knowledge and any useful implementation of that knowledge.  It’s more fun to learn the new stuff than to actually apply the effort to use it.  Human nature pushes us to do what’s fun, not what’s work. So…we take more classes and workshops on more topics that seem interesting, rather than zeroing in on one area that needs significant improvement.

The same can be true of us when it comes to goal setting.  We sometimes get lost in setting the goals and never even get beyond that process because we are overwhelmed.  There may be so many areas in which we think we need to improve, that we can’t seem to focus on the one or two that are of critical importance to us.  Rather, we have trouble deciding which one of those areas will give us the biggest payoff once the goal is reached. We may list so many goals that it looks like a to-do list to be checked off. 

Another problem is that we have trouble saying to ourselves and others that we’re working on just one thing.  We are a culture of multi-taskers.  We’ve been conditioned to think we have to have many things we’re working on all at the same time.  We’re embarrassed to say we’ve only got one thing on our list of improvements that we’re planning to tackle.  We think somehow we’re not working hard enough or we’re afraid others will think that about us.  As a result, we plug away until we eventually give up because we aren’t seeing significant results from our efforts.  What we are seeing is our efforts strewn about many things and not feeling a sense of accomplishment over one thing due to visible and measurable results.   We tend to look at the overall concept of all that needs to be improved in our lives or ourselves, versus looking at the improvement process one piece at a time.  We have to start to change our paradigm here.  When I teach a class on organizing the home, I start out by having the students identify the one room that each will focus her efforts on through the duration of the class.  We don’t look at the house in its entirety.  We focus on one room at a time.

Next week:  How negative filtering works against us in goal setting. 

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Keeping Money Organized

*

Is your purse full of receipts, coins, cash and cards? Simplify your life with these ideas.

Consider using separate change purses or sections of a wallet as an "envelope system."

 Keep your most used cards in a handy part of the wallet and consolidate lesser used cards into another section or change purse. That way you don't have to sort through a pile of membership/debit/credit/health/library cards to get to the ones you use most.

Have a set place to put your receipts, either in the wallet or in the same section of your purse.

Enough said.

Empty your wallet when you get home. 

Well, not all of it. Just take out the day's receipts and coins and store accordingly. For example, I put receipts in my monthly receipt box and take loose change and put it in a container for myself or the household, depending on how the original cash was spent. (I keep the cash in separate pouches.)

Refill your wallet as necessary. 

I try to live guided by a budget so I have a certain amount of cash for spending each month. I choose not to carry the entire month's cash at once, so I replenish as necessary when cleaning out my wallet.

If you get in the habit of cleaning out your wallet/purse regularly, before long it will be second nature.

*Note: I don't recommend putting money in accessible pockets like the photo above. This image is just to suggest keeping things in set pockets for organizing purposes.

Getting Organized is About Progress, Not Perfection

This post corresponds with chapter 3 of our book.

Romans 12:3 NKJV For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

Ladies, why are we so hard on ourselves?

My husband sometimes has to remind me to take off the boxing gloves. I fall into traps of being discouraged about my progress or thinking there's even more I should "be" or "do." In some ways, it's a form of perfectionism. Wanting things to be perfectly efficient, or having an image of being "all together," or wanting to be liked by everyone.

It seems like an innocent hangup really. I mean, wanting to do things right is a responsible, caring attitude, correct? If I worry over things being perfect, it just means that the people, activity or situation means something to me, right?

But do you know what it really is?

Pride.

That's right. One of the sins God hates. The thing that comes "before a fall." An attitude that deep down is really quite selfish.

We want to look good. But it's about making God look good.

We want others to think our home is orderly. But it's about creating a relaxing, warm environment for THEM to enjoy.

We want to avoid hearing critical comments from family or friends who think they do it better than we do. But it's about being patient and realizing our worth doesn't come from their opinion.

Perfectionism is insidious because it masquerades well as a "caring" sin. It doesn't seem nearly as bad as anger, lust, violence, immorality, stealing, etc. But it is a pervasive cancer of a sin that reveals where our trust and love really lies.

This article may convict you. Good. It does me. But it's not meant to condemn. Don't let the Enemy use this article to beat you up further. But prayerfully consider if your desire for order, efficiency and yes, perfection, is motivated by a biblical response to God and others.

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Car Clean?

by Beth Beutler

What's your car looking like right now? I just got my truck washed and it always feels good to have it clean. I've been doing a lot better about keeping the inside cleaned out, too. Here are some tips I've been trying to follow:

• When I get out of the truck most days, I try to collect everything that doesn't have a permanent home and make sure it comes into the house.
• I keep a hanging plastic bag on the passenger side to act as a trash bag. For the most part, all trash goes into that bag.
• I keep a roll of paper towels in a basket in the back seat so we always have something to clean up with or spread on our legs if eating on the run.
• Each week when I get gas, I empty or discard the trash bag and tidy up around the entire inside while the gas is pumping.

Now, I admit that I have an easier time of it because I rarely have any passengers anymore. (Enjoy them now...kids grow up quick!) But if you train all your passengers to scan their area as they leave the car, you can get in a good habit, too. Unless you want your car to be a big purse. :)*

(*First heard this analogy from Dave Ramsey.)

Getting Organized Concerns Progress, Not Perfection

This post corresponds with chapter 3 of our book.

Romans 12:3 NKJV For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

Ladies, why are we so hard on ourselves?

My husband sometimes has to remind me to take off the boxing gloves. I fall into traps of being discouraged about my progress or thinking there's even more I should "be" or "do." In some ways, it's a form of perfectionism. Wanting things to be perfectly efficient, or having an image of being "all together," or wanting to be liked by everyone.

It seems like an innocent hangup really. I mean, wanting to do things right is a responsible, caring attitude, correct? If I worry over things being perfect, it just means that the people, activity or situation means something to me, right?

But do you know what it really is?

Pride.

That's right. One of the sins God hates. The thing that comes "before a fall." An attitude that deep down is really quite selfish.

We want to look good. But it's about making God look good.

We want others to think our home is orderly. But it's about creating a relaxing, warm environment for THEM to enjoy.

We want to avoid hearing critical comments from family or friends who think they do it better than we do. But it's about being patient and realizing our worth doesn't come from their opinion.

Perfectionism is insidious because it masquerades well as a "caring" sin. It doesn't seem nearly as bad as anger, lust, violence, immorality, stealing, etc. But it is a pervasive cancer of a sin that reveals where our trust and love really lies.

This article may convict you. Good. It does me. But it's not meant to condemn. Don't let the Enemy use this article to beat you up further. But prayerfully consider if your desire for order, efficiency and yes, perfection, is motivated by a biblical response to God and others.

Comment below! Click on the phrase containing "comments" and use Facebook or our regular comment box!