MAKEOVER OF THE HEART

Last year we decided to redecorate our kitchen. Due to the fact that we had a very small budget we were going to do all the work ourselves. We are not new do-it yourselvers so we were fairly confident in being able to complete the work in the 8 short weeks we had until I was to host my ladies bible study group. We worked many late nights and long weekends to get the walls painted, refinish the cabinets, and install a new sink and new countertop. With one last weekend push we completed one week early. Luckily that gave me a couple of days to clean up and prepare for the bible study. Many of these ladies would be visiting my home for the first time so of course I wanted to make the best possible impression. I first cleared away all of our “construction” tools and then I move on to the rest of the house. As I worked to clean I began to notice that the other rooms of the house just were not up to the new standard now set by the re-made kitchen. As looked at the newness and brightness of the kitchen I become conscious of the wear, tear and darkness of my family room, bedrooms, and bathrooms. So I worked even harder to make every inch of the house as clean as possible. The night came and all the ladies went on and on about how great the kitchen looked but all I could think about was how bad the rest of the house looked. By the end of the night I was miserable because I allowed the enemy to twist and turn my thoughts into a beating stick. Later that night God used the event to teach me a lesson. He taught me both gratitude and grace. Let me explain: For the first few weeks/months after I was saved God slowly opened my eyes to sins in my life. As these sins were reveled to me and I worked to repent of them He would mend that piece of my heart. Then as time pasted I would begin to think, “Ok I have arrived.” I would feel as if I had come as far as God would bring my and I would praise Him for the changes in my life. But then He would slow remove more scales from my eyes to reveal more darkness that still remained in the corners of my heart. I had to acknowledge that I was not yet wholly redeemed and I would not be until I was with Him in heaven. I could have let that acknowledgment throw me into a deep despair or I could take another step into the light closer to Him. So just like my kitchen ended up being just the start of a total home makeover, salvation was just the first step to a total me makeover.

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