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The official first day of spring is approaching! I know we could still get snow or other bad weather, but when we reach the spring equinox, I always feel like more sunny days are ahead than stormy ones. 

Do you do spring cleaning? I am not much for deep cleaning of my house. I mean, it’s reasonably clean, no health hazards here, but physically, I’m not up to lots of scrubbing and moving heavy furniture around so I can clean under and behind it. 

But I love to organize, and there are potential spring cleaning activities that fall in that category. I can go through files and eliminate papers I no longer need to keep. I can go through my kitchen cupboards and get rid of things I don’t actually use any more, and maybe move some things to a place that’s easier to reach or more handy to the counter where I usually use them. I can go through my warm weather clothes and weed out things that don’t fit me or that I never wear because I actually don’t like them.

As I read my Bible, I have learned that one of God’s priorities is how we treat other people. My castoff clothing or kitchen gadgets could bless someone else instead of taking up space and gathering dust in my house.

My purpose in organizing, as in everything else, should be to achieve God’s goals. Which Jesus summarized as to love God with all our being and do our best to spread his love to everyone around us. (A loose translation of Matthew 22: 37-40.) Organizing the things in my house gives me more time to do that because I don’t have to spend time hunting for things. 

Oh, the hours I have spent in the past trying to track down an urgently needed piece of paper, or something that had sat in plain sight on my desk for months until I moved it someplace I now couldn’t remember. “A place for everything and everything in its place” was worth the time it took to achieve it because I now know exactly where to find something when I want it. Then I can use the time I saved to do something fun.

And then there is organizing that does not involve physical things. I can use this “spring cleaning” time to ponder some of those. Is my relationship with God all that I want it to be? Perhaps there are some changes I’d like to make. And what about my relationships with other people? If there are bad feelings between me and another person, perhaps this is a good time to “clean up” that connection. 

My connection with my children isn’t as close as I’d like it to be, to my regret. I’ve used the excuse that they live thousands of miles away from me and are busy with their careers and families. But recently I realized that yes, they are very busy, but I am not. I have the time to reach out and contact them in some way at regular intervals, with letters and phone calls and even the occasional email.

While I’m “spring cleaning” my inner self, I’ll check if I’ve acquired a bad habit that I’d like to scrub out of my life. Or a way of thinking that I need to change. I usually avoid phoning my children because “I don’t want to bother them.” I suspect that’s a way of thinking that I need to sweep right on out the door. Negative thoughts about myself need to go, too.

Organizing also means establishing habits to help keep me on track. And the number one habit I have established is daily time with God, in prayer and in his Word. The more familiar I become with the Bible, the more I find guidance for every situation in my life. Psalm 119:105 says it best: Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

I wish you all light on your path — and some organization in your life.