The Bottom Line, Ministries Christian News, Articles, & Poetry 
Winter vacation seems to be the time when items in my house gain a little more of my attention than the usual routine. For example, toys that my kids no longer play with may take a vacation into a storage tub or they may go on a donation trip. Other parts of my time might be spent sorting through cabinets and rearranging culinary tools in hopes of gaining a more efficient kitchen. Closets are typically the last places to be attacked since the amount of time spent trying to clean out just one closet alone can take extended hours depending on how cluttered and disastrous the space is to start. No matter what the task of scouring may be, once completed, a feeling of satisfaction grows deep inside me knowing that a sense of freedom has been obtained.
This Christmas break, as the year drew to a close, I started to reflect upon not only my goals for the New Year, but also the clutter that was residing in my heart keeping me from being an effective mom, wife, and a follower of Jesus.
As women, we have a tendency to multi-task a few more items than what we really should, and over time our ability to maintain the day-by-day routines can become overcrowded with all of the tiny things that we didn’t think would be a problem to add into our schedule and before we realize what has happened, a cluster of issues needing to be resolved are taking over our time and hindering our abilities to serve God the way he desires us to serve.
Just like my closets, my heart was in need of some deep cleaning.
“I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.” (Jeremiah 17:10)
God knows the desires I have to be a good mom, wife, and servant to Him.
“The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, Searching all the inner depths of his heart.”(Proverbs 20:27)
When I take on more than what God wants me to handle, then the fruit of my labor is little if any, but when I take on what He wants me to do, my mind becomes effective and I have the ability to focus on the task at hand.
God does not want us to be weighed down with commitments that are meant for others to handle. Instead, he wants us to be effective followers serving as He desires us to serve.
