Day 60: I like a house of order...

There is a scripture that I love:

"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;" Doctrine & Covenants 109:8

I am an organizing kind of gal. I love to plan. I love to rearrange, I love to organize - give me a messy closet & I am a happy camper as I slowly make order out of the chaos...of course, I prefer the order & organization to stay put, but that never seems to happen in life. Hmmm, but I digress.

I love this scripture because I feel that it is something tangible that I can apply to my life. A house of prayer? no problem, I will pray more, teach my children to pray, pray as a family, etc... A house of fasting? a little harder, but I am given the opportunity once a month at church and have certainly chosen to fast during times of important decisions. A house of learning - well, if homeschooling doesn't count for this than I don't know what does! A house of glory...still not 100% sure on this one, but we strive to put God first and give the credit & glory to him. A house of God...again, we try to put him first: start & end our day with God; attend church; serve others, etc... A house of order...ah, my kind of house.

I have always assumed that a house of order means just that...a house that is orderly. You know, clean & organized. One that runs smoothly. I mean, it is kind of a no brainer.

However, I recently heard a comment that has had me thinking for a while. What if a house of order means more about having our priorities in order and less about how clean our house is? Hmmm...well, that is a little tougher and something that I truly struggle with!

Priorities? You mean, like focusing my time and energy on the important things instead of playing Sudoku all day? You mean, ensuring that my time, energy and talents are used to serve my family, church and God instead of mindlessly watching reruns of "Castle"?

So, I decided to try a little experiment - put my focus and energy on other things instead of the house. yes, laundry and dishes done every day. yes, do a quick pick up every night and even a quick swipe of the bathroom daily, but basically stop worrying about spring cleaning. Stop worrying about scouring the toilet. Stop worrying about what is accumulating on my children's floors, under their beds and in their closets.

How did my experiment go? Well, pretty good. I wasn't nagging at the children as much. I was learning to spend more time playing, reading and learning instead of cleaning. (My favorite quote from my oldest is "yeah, mom is all clean, clean, clean, blah, blah, blah".)

But today, as I am sitting in a disaster zone of a house, I have to say there must be a balance between my idea of a house of order and the idea of house with the right priorities.

All of our clothes are either in bags waiting to be washed or in bags waiting to be worn. The majority of toys, books and other belongings are in bags waiting to be re-introduced to rooms (with me desperately hoping that I didn't bring down a ton of bed bugs to other parts of the house). Children's bedrooms are a disaster. My family area looks like a slumber party prolonged for one day to long.

I feel at odds in a house that I already feel at odds with. I feel uncomfortable, I feel stressed, I feel overwhelmed and I feel chaotic - I hate chaos.

Do I need to spring clean every 6 months? Maybe  not, but I should probably weed out belongings often enough that I am not packing up a year's worth of papers without even knowing what is in them, but to scared to just throw them away. I need to teach my children how to do the little cleaning and the big cleaning so the next plague or disaster that comes our way they are prepared to help and/or put the longer hours in (side note: my oldest is doing an awesome job of working and carefully taking care of her belongings, which I really appreciate).

What does this have to do with my journey? A lot.

I have been debating with myself for awhile if I could skip the walk & stretch until this is all over. I have been wondering if I can justify the time.

This morning, as I stretched, I felt irritated. Irritated that there was not a clean spot to work. Irritated that my normal quiet spots were full of children and/or belongings. I felt irritated that something no bigger than an apple seed could disrupt my home so completely.

I am going to keep walking and stretching. I have to. If I don't, I might not go back to doing it for a really long time. I am afraid that I will find something else too hard or too messy or too chaotic to overcome.

But when this is all over...my house of order is going to be both priorities and cleanliness.