Bless This Mess

I used to have a “Bless This Mess” sign posted in my kitchen. However, one day one of my great aunts visited me and made me take it down.

Well, she didn’t exactly make me.

First, I should probably tell you a little about this lady. She was a true southern lady, and she loved the Lord. She had 10 children and I-don’t-know-how-many grandchildren. Her children and grandchildren used to fight over – not who had to have her at their house but – who got to have her.

She was who I wanted to be when I became her age (which is, I admit, now). When she spoke, I wanted to be sure to listen.

So, she entered my kitchen, saw my sign, and immediately said in her very southern drawl, “Hahney, Gawd can’t bleuss uh mess, for He is nawt the ahtha of confuusion!”

She was right. The Bible does say that; in fact, that verse (I Corinthians 14:33) also says that He is the author of peace. I took the sign down.

Now what could I do? If God can’t bless a mess, then maybe I needed to approach my job of being a homemaker differently.

I think that was when I started on what is becoming a lifelong quest to be an organized person.

I began to read books on organization. I gained at least a little something from every book I read, trying to put as much as possible into practice. For example, based on one book, I wrote every job in my house on 3×5” cards, the idea being that you were to do the job, then you filed the card into the month/week/day that you would need to do it again. When that system failed, I used all those cards in assigning jobs to my children. 😛

I have actually had some attitude changes and some successes. It was during this time that I became familiar with the idea of doing the most important things first. (See blog posts I STILL Can’t Get It All Done and What IS Important?)

I cannot yet call myself organized, but I am better than I used to be. My house and my kitchen stay cleaner for longer, but to be honest, some of that is a function of no longer having children in my home creating messes! (Yes, ladies, it does get easier!)

Over the next several weeks, I plan to share with you some of the tips that have worked for me on my quest, besides becoming an empty-nester. 😉

Come back and join in. Share whatever questions or issues you have. Maybe I’ll have some ideas that will help you.

My husband likes to say, “Do you know how to get good judgement? Experience. Do you know how to get experience? Bad judgement!”

I have plenty of experience birthed by bad judgement in this area, so maybe I’ll have some answers.