April MOPS Meeting

Today's speaker topic was, "The Courage to Clean" and our very own MOPS Momma Lacy Sanford was our special speaker!! I think we were all inspired to tackle some jobs at home, but also very encouraged by her reminder to bravely be who God made us to be and to celebrate one another and what we're good at...and her best reminder: "Comparison is the thief of joy!" God has gifted Lacy with the ability to organize and clean, but she prefaced her talk with the reminder that everyone is gifted in different areas!

Lacy gave us lots of great tips and Scripture to motivate us and spur us on to purge and simplify our homes to ultimately make the task of cleaning less burdensome! She suggested first starting your day off with taking some time to read God's word and praying! Because after all, where does our help come from? Our help comes from the Lord (Psalm 121)!!

Lacy shared a great quote of William Morris', "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."  And the one that got me was, "Owning less is far more beneficial than organizing more." So true!! I think a lot of us struggle because our homes tend to be packed with just too much stuff! The less we have, the less we have to clean up!

I loved the thoughts Lacy shared on why donating items we don't need is much more beneficial than storing them up, "just in case" we might need them. She said ORGANIZING stuff DOES NOT:

• benefit anyone (if you donate it--someone else could be using it NOW!!)
• solve our debt problem (you aren't saving anything by storing that item that you'll forget you had tucked away to use later "just in case")
• turn back our desire for more
• force us to evaluate our lives

Face the task in front of you courageously. Find a cleaning routine that works FOR YOU! She shared this one as a sample from the Time Warp Wife:

So why do we want to take care of our home? Because it affects us emotionally! As Lacy mentioned, it isn't the actual process of cleaning she loves so much, but rather the peace of having a well kept space and how it makes her feel.

Another great verse she shared was, "She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness." (Proverbs 31:27)

To face the task in front of us courageously, Lacy gave us great reminders to leave idleness behind, let go of holding on to too much stuff that may be cluttering our space, and to establish a routine that works for us to conquer the cleaning that we may so often dread.

Yes, it's true that there may be no press conference talking about all the home making tasks we have accomplished today, but no task is too menial when done for the Lord! "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord" (Colossians 3:23)!!!

To go along with today's topic, our Creative Activity was making home made cleaning supplies!

We had a fun morning! We will be ordering new t-shirts, so be sure to get your order in if you want one!

We hope you can make it to our MOPS Movie Night next Friday!

Have a blessed weekend!