HOUSEKEEPING THOUGHTS

Something died in my garden shed.  A quick gagging search did not reveal the stinking source; mainly because my shed was a mess.

It is only a few years old and I fondly remember how fastidiously I kept it the first couple seasons.  With lots of space, shelving, good storage, a potting bench and plenty of containers, it even boasted a window air conditioner.  It was actually nice enough that the granddaughters, Haley and Abby, with friend Emily had a sleep-over in it once. No one would want to do that now!

My excuses

·         Several hasty springtime plantings and leaving little messes

·          Using the shed for finishing new doors and window frames for the house addition

·         Some fall yard and garden clean-ups when I was simply tired of working outside and just shut the door for winter.

·         A good clean-up became a daunting task.

The horrible smell, however, required action on this Saturday morning and I had a lot of time to think as I moved things, cleaned, hauled out trash, and scolded myself for keeping some of the junk.

First musing: I wondered if many of our prisons are filed with the results of neglected housekeeping too.

 Is it possible that some parents are enamored with their new baby and spend a lot of time with them when they are small, cute, and obedient?  Our intentions are good but then in the pressures of life we begin to ignore little issues that need to be corrected.  Things pile up, the situations become messy, the housekeeping is abandoned, and the door is shut on the problems until one day we realize something is rotten and it is just too hard or too late to deal with the clean-up.

Second thought:  a child’s environment is vitally important too.

I eventually found the source of the stink in my shed.  It is hard to believe 2 tiny mice could smell that bad but they did!  

The real problem was that Mama Mouse had built her nest right beside a sack of rat poison.  Supposedly it contains an ingredient that keeps rodents from stinking in case they expire in your house walls.  Possibly it worked because she was not in sight and probably her babies died of neglect after she disappeared.

This made me consider that what parents feed on and what surrounds our kids matters too. Have we also tried to raise our children in dangerous and deadly habitats? As Christians, do our lives and homes look any different from the world’s?

I am resolved today to be more diligent in tending to my own “house”,  to encourage younger people, and to thank God for a wise son who does the same every week.

The world is too much with us.  William Wordsworth

I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.
I will set no worthless thing before my eyes.

Psalm 101:2-3