Getting & Staying Organized

I posted something short earlier, but God's been nudging me to come back and invite you to be part of something He's laid on my heart.

• If you knew that having more order in your home would bring more order to your world - freeing up your time, emotions, thougths and spiritual gifts to do what God's called you to do - would you make it a priority?
  
  
• If you knew it was actually possible, would you take some small steps towards getting and staying organized?

After posting confessions of my cluttered counter tops, closets and cabinets, I worked for a few hours on the mess in my nest. And, I feel like I've lost 10 mental pounds! The feeling of freedom that followed my progress is amazing. I promise to post photos later this week of my "before and after."

Today God reminded me of 1 Corinthians 14:33, "For God is not a God of disorder but of peace." In the context of this verse, Paul is talking about order in the church. But in the context of our lives this truth also applies.

Order is part of God's character and peace is the promised fruit of His spirit.

Our longing for order and peace is woven into our souls because we are created in God's likeness. Our spirits long for a lack of confusion. The Holy Spirit has been showing me since last week that this is a big deal. We care about our homes and want to be good managers of our piles and files. As I read your challenges and honestly assessed how I've been feeling about mine, I sensed that our messes are not only piling up - they are weighing us down. Consider this:

• When you see your organizationally challenged areas, do you feel a sense of peace or defeat? Do you get all irritated inside?
  
  
• Does your life start to feel out of control when you think about what you need to do to get organized but feel like you have no time to do it?
  

Can I encourage you to give yourself the gift of bringing a little order to your world. A little peace to your heart and home. I want to gather some girlfriends to encourage and pray for each other this week, and commit together to tackle one of our organizational challenges. Will you join me?

And because we all need some incentive, I'm giving away another copy of Karen's book "The Complete Guide to Getting and Staying Organized", and some organizational pretties!

If you want to join in this quest, click on the word "Comments" at the end of this post and tell me what one area will you give an hour or so to this week. Your commitment will qualify you for the give-away. And will you pray for the person who leaves a comment right before yours? I'll leave the first one. Then for a second chance to win, click here and get the encouragement you need to finish what you start.

On Friday, I have another P31 friend and author who is writing a book called, "I Used to Be So Organized" who is going to stop by to encourage, pray for and help us with some very practical ideas! And I'm working on having my before & after photos up then, too.

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