The Elusive Day 7 Update!

Hi all!

So, if you're following along with me, I was to tackle Day 7 of this challenge exactly 13 days ago. !!! Seriously, has it taken me this long to get it done??

Um...yeah.

Let's back up. I left off talking about the fall and how it is evident almost everywhere we look. Our world tends toward chaos, disaster, despair, and disorder because of the fall. We as humans tend toward those things as well. It's summed up in our sinful nature. Our homes are also subject to the same kind of  results because of the fall.

It takes work to keep things in order and when you have to do it day by day praying you're making progress along the way, it's VERY difficult. I never put two and two together in that just as our hearts, our sin natures are part of the fall, so is the chaos in our homes.

But there is hope!
Romans 8:20-21 states:
²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it—in the hope ²¹ that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children. (HCSB)

Our hope to be set free from the bondage of corruption is in Jesus Christ alone! There is a way out of the despair, away from the disaster and disorder. Only through Jesus and His saving power can we ever have a hope of digging our way out of the rubble. We have so much more than what meets the eye against us, but we also have our God who is bigger than all of that and who is FOR us, if we so choose to trust in Him. 

Little by little I am learning this along with a host of other things God the Holy Spirit has chosen to show me and teach me. I still feel overwhelmed at the thought of it all, so I try to not dwell on all that has to be done. When I do get overwhelmed I remember that this is exactly what the enemy wants me to feel because it brings a false sense of defeat. It paralyzes me and makes me feel like he wins. If he can get a foothold there, then he can get a foothold elsewhere too to whisper lies into my ears. 

As another part of this challenge, I had to clean out my kitchen cabinets, purge and rearrange. Well, that was what was mostly holding me up from an "official" update for this passage. I finally got it all done yesterday! Here's my progress and what I ended up throwing out/donating:

Over the past thirteen days I've thrown out/recycled/donated a total of 56 items! YAY! That averages out to about four items a day :D My kitchen feels much lighter and I have more space which is just visually appealing. I hated looking at all that clutter!

 I also cleaned out the pantry just yesterday (ouch). I was able to get rid of seven more things out of there and got the rest of it cleaned up and straightened out, reorganized. I've been waiting to update until I actually accomplished that bit of the challenge. Type A much?  Sorry for such a long delay because of that one little thing. For some reason, I would have felt dishonest without having done that first.

On top of all this, I'm actually posting from Hubby's computer. "My" computer's power cord no longer works, so it is currently dead. We've ordered another one, but I don't think it's going to get here until early June. Ugh. So.Over.This. All that to say, I won't be able to access the rest of the 31 Days to Clean study because it's on the dead computer. Makes me want to cry. So this will probably be one of the few posts until I can get the dead computer back up again. I'm committed to picking back up again. I'm also going to continue to do the Clutter Busting Challenge and am going to continue to chronicle the rest of that challenge. Hope to see you back!