From the Inside Out

So apparently, I am on a bloggy break (smile). However, I am interrupting this break for a post. I know. Surprised me a bit also. It is not that I don't have a hundred posts twirling in my head, it is that I feel the need to get certain things in order and fortunately or unfortunately, I am comfortable allowing the blog to take the blow until the timing is right.


Of course, I'd love to post about back to school because this year, three in our family went back. I accepted a long term sub opportunity for a third grade class, Emily headed back in the second grade and Hannah is now a big three year old in her preschool!




Our littest ladybug is on her new school induced schedule and even those weekend days don't prevent her little body from waking very early in the morning. So, as we wiped the drowsy from our eyes this beautiful autumn morning, I sought to be productive. I felt led to clean the windows! All.of.them.

The windows should easily fold in so that the inside and outside can be cleaned with ease. Some of the windows did not yield easily. And it caused me pause...I thought about our own inability to yield to the process of getting clean from the inside out. It is pretty simple to clean up the outside, polishing up our seen and visible places and carefully hiding away our unseen places. The thing about a window is, they are or should be transparent. So, it stands to reason that even when the outside is clean, the inside needs to be polished as well.

Who would think a task as mundane as washing the windows could evoke such deep thoughts? But it did. And I considered all the ways the Lord wants me to clean up the inside just as pretty as I clean up the outside (most days:) I am excited to begin a new year of Bible Study with a host of amazing women. What a blessing to know them, pray with them, parent with them and walk our walk together. We will be dealing with brokenness and blind spots. To some scary, to me, another path I'm led to travel and hopefully windex away the grime and dirt that clogs up my life.

The actual act of cleaning also brought about some awesome thoughts. The first window remains home to a mother spider and her babies. As I folded out the window, I caught a glimpse of her and her many offspring, as they scrambled away from my enemy hands. I thought of how miraculous life is, all life, even tiny lives. The second window had a giant knothole in the wood below the transom. It reminded me of the endless hours Rob spent building each and every frame. Our great room is some of his finest work and it made me extra grateful for Rob's gifts, his devotedness to his family and the many ways he has made our life beautiful. Each window was a glimpse into another place in our life; where Emily's mural once was in her nursery...where the sunlight trickles in on an antique tea cart handed down to us from Rob's parents... the window I stare out when the children are not well and I am awake all night... the one that holds a suncatcher Hannah made just for Emily, Tinkerbell, to be exact...such peace each window gave me. Content peace, not just happy, it reminded me how content our family is with our many blessings. Perhaps, not glamorous, but most definitely blessed.

So today, I leave you with this thought...is there a window that needs to be polished in your life? Are you transparent? Or does the dirt and grime of life clog up the view? My prayer for all of us this day is that our windows will sparkle from the inside out!

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me." Psalm 51:10