Cleaning Up After the 5000

In Matthew 14, we see the story of  Jesus feeding 5000 people, and a verse stuck out to me that applies to home management and organization.

Matthew 14:20 (NKJV) So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained.

After Jesus did this miracle, the disciples (and perhaps other people) gathered up the leftovers after everyone had enough to eat.

They cleaned up after themselves.

I don't know what they did with the fragments, but it sure looks like that mountain wasn't left looking like 5000+ people had been there eating.

How about us? Sometimes it's easy to put our energy toward the beginning of a project of a meal or event, but clean up is less exciting. Yet it is an important part of stewardship.

I used to camp frequently and the "Good Sam" motto is to leave a campsite better than you found it. What if we did that wherever we find ourselves? What if each of us picked up one piece of litter at the park? What if we consolidated our dirty dishes for the wait staff at the restaurant? What if we taught our kids (as I saw one lady to) to take a paper towel and wipe around the sink in the church restroom after they wash their hands?

How much nicer would God's world look if we cleaned up after ourselves, and took an extra step to even help clean up after others sometimes too?

Image: © 2013 Jupiterimages Corporation

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Introducing "Take It On!" Tuesdays!

We would like to introduce a new constant to our blog—"Take It On!" Tuesday  Every Tuesday we are going to share an easy task that you should be able to complete that day which we hope will continue to encourage you toward “Progress not Perfection” as we share in our book.  We hope Tuesdays will become your favorite day of the week as you look forward to Take It On Tuesday! Most TIOT ideas will be provided by author Karina Whisnant.

Here's the first one!

Task 1  

All of us have a drawer or a container where we keep various writing instruments and other necessary desk type tools.  Clean out one of those drawers today.  Throw out the pens that no longer work, highlighters that are past their prime, a glue stick that won’t have a chance in the world of helping anything get stuck to anything else, etc.!  Ready Set, Go!  When you finish the task, post what you did and how long it took you. Who will be the first to inspire us? Comment below. 

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Weekend Project Idea

Organize one drawer in your kitchen. Just one.

Pray While Folding Laundry

©2013 Jupiterimages Corporation

Chances are, you fold a good bit of laundry each week. As you fold your clothing items or those of loved ones, consider praying in this way:

Sweaters/Tops: pray for the warmth of God's love to surround them; for them to embrace modesty before Him.

Sports clothes: pray that they will "run and not be weary" for the Lord.

Underclothing: pray that their hearts will remain pure, that they will guard their hearts from evil, and that they will have a foundation of faith.

Socks: pray that they will walk in "newness of life," that they will walk toward serving God and others and not away from Him

Pants/Skirts: pray that their legs will take them to places that will honor God and that they will walk alongside people who need encouragement

Bed linens: pray they will rest easily "under the shadow of His wings."

Towels: pray that they will be cleansed from sin, poor attitudes, and concerns/worries.

What other ways can you pray as you fold clothes?

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Cell Phone Organization

Image © 2013 Jupiterimages Corporation

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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Eyewear Storage

Source: buzzfeed.com viaBeth on Pinterest

Pretty and cool way to store eyewear.


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