Spring Cleanup
SPRING CLEANUP
Read Colossians 3:8-16.
“Mom, what are you doing?” asked Tiffany. Piles of old clothes, jewelry, and broken furniture were scattered around the living room.
“I decided to do a big cleanup,” Mom replied. “Why keep clothes or jewelry I never wear or furniture that I’ll never get around to fixing?”
“Good point, Mom,” said Tiffany.
“Honey,” Mom called, “why don’t you go through some of your things too?”
“But I use everything I have,” Tiffany said. A short time later, however, she brought a big box downstairs. She pulled out an old stuffed animal. “Look at this, Mom—hardly any stuffing left. And this sweatshirt is three sizes too small.”
Mom nodded. “You know,” she began, “this reminds me of when I was saved.”
“How’s that, Mom?” asked Tiffany.
“Well, after I was saved I had to get rid of a lot of old, bad habits and replace them with new, good ones like church attendance and prayer.”
“I was saved when I was just a little girl,” replied Tiffany. “I didn’t have any bad habits.”
“No?” Mom’s brows went up. “I seem to remember that you used to tell a lot of lies.”
“Oh yeah,” Tiffany said, blushing. “I forgot about that. I used to get mad a lot too, didn’t I? I still have some garbage to get rid of sometimes.”
“Each of us needs to check our life every day to see if it pleases the Lord,” said Mom. “When we belong to Him, we want our lives to show that.”
HOW ABOUT YOU?
Are there bad habits you should throw away? Cheating? Selfishness? Yelling? Get rid of bad habits and make room for new, good ones. Live as a “new creature” in Christ.
TO MEMORIZE:
Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Colossians 3:12
THROW OUT BAD HABITS.
From the book
