Category Archives: Inspirational

Don’t Go Uncovered

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Cover Me by 21:03

I was cleaning out the microwave it wasn’t as bad as I thought but there was still residue of food in certain areas. I always tell my children to make sure they cover their plates with a paper towel to protect their food and from food splattering all over the microwave. I almost became disgusted when I thought about when you’re reheating your food and it goes uncovered the potential of food that was left in the microwave and had been reheated numerous times fall on your food. I never thought about that until now. It’s amazing how we go from day-to-day uncovered, unprotected and put ourselves at a greater risk of not only injuring others but ourselves even more if we are already broken or wounded. We put ourselves at risk of an infection or contamination because we left ourselves open and exposed to anything. If we don’t take the time to daily clean ourselves from the inside out instead of walking around acting like everything is ok not only will we be damaged goods but then we put others at risk of being harmed. Whatever you do before going out COVER UP!
#CLEANTHISHOUSE

Identity Theft

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Lord Make Me Over by the Walls Group

Identity by James Fortune

The thing that I have learned most when everything was stripped from my life was the fact that I found “ME”For most of my life I was wrapped up in the identity and opinions of others and who “they” thought I should be; therefore, instead of becoming a God chaser I became a people pleaser that eventually stripped me of who I really was.I felt like the caterpillar who went through the metamorphosis stage which on the outside wasn’t a pretty sight while on the inside it was a painful process transforming from what was to what she was called to be.Most of us will never have or be more than what we are right now because we 1. Want die to ourselves 2. Refuse to change our frame of mind 3. Want go through the process John 10:10 “I came that you might have life and that you might have life more abundantly.”Abundance is more than materialistic gain, but what about wisdom, joy, peace and freedom that NO ONE can take from you.I feel like the butterfly that is slowly coming out of her cocoon.NEW LIFE is beginning for me.#CLEANTHISHOUSE

The Gift of Goodbye

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He Is Exalted by JJ Hairston and Youthful Praise

I woke up this morning super excited because today was the very last day I was going to have to go the apartment. So you know how we do when we are getting ready to say goodbye we look to part, put on our perfume, blast the music, but something I noticed the closer I got my energy level was dropping, I became nervous, there were butterflies in my stomach as I passed by a corn field that at one time was barren but is now in full harvest. Tears began to fall as I pulled up to the apartment and I couldn’t even move. So I stayed in the car until I was ready. I finally got out and got the rest of the stuff that was left and said good-bye to some neighbors. I took my last look around to make sure nothing was left behind and I noticed something I never had before. The scars, the scrapes, the chipped paint, the dirt marks all because it was covered up. To you it may just be a house, but to me and my family it’s more than just a house. When I saw my house I was still married and never thought I would be going into it alone. This was my 1st and only apartment of 13 1/2 yrs, I raised my children here. You don’t know the sweat, the tears, the struggles, the nights I cried, the times I wanted to give up or even thought suicide was an option, but God. I lost a lot but I have gained so much more. God ALWAYS gives you more than he takes away. So with that being said, as I exit the thing that was and walk into what is, I lift up my countenance and I do what I do best which is give God praise. My conclusion to the whole matter is that GOD has BETTER!#CLEANTHISHOUSE

Something In Me Refused To Die

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I Shall Live by Jason Nelson

I had finished cleaning up the apartment for the most part, my car was getting detailed and everyone else was gone. So as I was sitting there waiting I realized I had awhile yet before my car was going to be ready and I no longer wanted to sit here. I had emotionally and mentally dealt with everything so being in the apartment no longer held the same substance. What once was a place full of life was now empty. So I went to see if my neighbor would take me up the street so that I could get something to eat. She gave me the keys to her car and said I could use it as long as I needed to. Reluctantly I said ok, inside I was scared to get in it. She was a sweet older lady that would do anything for anybody if she could and it was nice of her to offer me her car, but I thought about how small her car was compared to mine. I already started feeling smothered and I hadn’t even got in the car yet. I have very long legs, inside her car looked cluttered and the thought of having to drive something other than mine. I got in the car and tried to adjust myself, but no matter how much I adjusted myself the more uncomfortable I felt. It is just like us how we continue to live in situations and circumstances that we know we have out grown to the point that we have become uncomfortable. God gives us the necessary  tools to get out, to overcome, but yet we stay in bondage, in a tight place, a ucomfortable place when God has called us out. It’s just like the elephant who was chained with a ball at his leg and even when he was set free he still would only go as far as the chain would allow him to go. Though physically he had been set free mentally he was still bound to the chains. There had to be a renewing of the mind. When I was going through what I called my wilderness experience I had a choice which was to LIVE or DIE. When I made the choice to LIVE and not just exist that meant I had to change and it all began with the way I was thinking.  “And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” Romans 12:2 When my way of thinking changed, it changed my thought process,  which then changed my whole life.#CLEANTHISHOUSE

You To Can Recover

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He Loves Us by Jesus Culture

Now Be Restored by Vashawn Mitchell

When I was cleaning out my oven I realized that it wasn’t only that I needed to maintain the cleaning of the oven often so that things wouldn’t build up and would be hard to clean, but it was also what I was using. My mother had bought me some cheap stuff that wasn’t doing the job and was making the process a little bit longer. I believe my mother would never  steer me the wrong way and was giving me what she thought was best. The things that may work for everyone else may not work for us. So I went and bought another brand that cost a little more money, was a name brand but was highly recommended. We can’t always use the cheapest brand or take the easiest way out and thinking the result will be the same. So I sprayed it on the oven and immediately I could tell in the texture of what it looked like and as the dirt immediately surfaced to the top I knew it was going to work. So I decided to let it sit over night. When I came back the next day I stood in amazement of how it looked, that I could tell there was a difference. As I began to wipe the oven underneath the surface so clean it was as if it was a brand new oven. You could hardly see the trace of it being used after all these years. Had I thought to use this in the beginning I wouldn’t have had to go through all of that, but I realize some processes are necessary.   A lot of times we can look at our life by what we’ve done, what has been done to us or what we’ve gone through that we will never recover from the damage or the things that we have lost. Your past isn’t who you are, but it is what you’ve done or what has been done to you. It only takes the right ingredients which is the blood of Jesus Christ. What can wash away our sins NOTHING but the blood of Jesus. He can restore, He can heal, He can deliver, He can set free and whom the Son sets free is free indeed. All is not lost. #CLEANTHISHOUSE

Let It Go

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A heart that forgives by Kevin Levar

Let Go by Dewayne Woods

I dropped the girls off at school and went back to the apartment to clean up. At the time I was by myself and not really focusing on anything but cleaning up. Moving everything to the front of the apartment.One side was with things I was taking to our new home and the other side was things I wasn’t taking with me at all. I have always been taught to grieve but don’t grieve long. I have always agreed with that method until now. I have found out that if you don’t properly grieve or go through the process it will come up again. I am now having to deal with a lot that I thought I had dealt with over the years, but realizing I had only buried them. At the moment I wasn’t ready to deal with it, so I stayed focused on the task at hand which was to “CLEAN THIS HOUSE” Later I found myself saying I’m just ready for this to be over not realizing at the time that this was part of the process that I have to go through in order to fully cross over into the next season whole. I then sat down to eat my lunch and my mom was getting ready to leave and I sat on the floor and felt it coming, but I was still trying to avoid it and hold it in. Then I heard a still small voice say “Let It Go” Tears began to fall down my face. Again I heard “Let It Go” I began to cry like a big baby. The tears I cried were of mixed emotions. Happy, but also sad having to deal with the fact that IT IS OVER.The life that I thought I would  have but it died.
1. My Pastor died
2. My family church was no more
3. Divorced
4. Leaving what I considered home and where we raised our children

Moving forward doesn’t mean I would forget, but God was closing a chapter in my life. I had to deal with it and embrace it to fully walk into my new season God had for me and my family.#CLEANTHISHOUSE

The Oven Cleaner

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You Have My Heart by Farris Long

Nobody Greater by Vashawn Mitchell

I was starting to clean out the oven in the apartment and Wow what a challenge this is going to be. I have never had to clean out an oven before, thank God for that, so I’m clueless.  My mother told me exactly what to do. So I started spraying the oven immediately. It immediately foamed up and dirt began to surface, but the fumes OMG! So as I let it set I began to clean up else where. When I came back to it was filthy and had picked up so much stuff. I kept rinsing the rag repeatedly until the water was clear, but to my surprise there was still a lot left in the oven because I had only scratched the surface of what remained. So in order for me to get rid of what was left I was going to have to continually repeat the process so it would be completely clean to where there is almost no evidence or trace of it being used. Most of us have only scratched the surface of what had happened in our life. Though we came out of the fire, we made it through the storm and rain we are now only surviving because that’s what we have been taught. We didn’t deal with the damaged it caused or the residue it left behind. So when the next storms come we go into survival mode, but what it left begins to pile up and now we are trying to recover from all. Had we only done the proper maintenance after each storm.  #CLEANTHISHOUSE

Unnecessary Clutter

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I Will Run by Freddy Rodriguez
Take Me To The King by Tamela Mann
As I was cleaning out my apartment just when I thought that I was done I would come across more stuff. At this point I want to throw it all away because I don’t want to go through the process of cleaning it out. I realized that each item is connected to a memory and not everything needs to be thrown away. There is still value that lies in the midst of the clutter. The things that accumulate over the years. Had I done the necessary cleaning through out the years it wouldn’t be so much to go through, throw away or deal with. In life we tend to clutter our minds and our hearts with unneccasary stuff which over a period of time will become cluttered. We are then unable to think clearly, our hearing becomes off and our vision becomes blurred.  The battle begans in the mind which gives the signal to the rest of our body. Whatever you feed the most is what will grow.#CLEANTHISHOUSE

Introduction to Clean This House

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Break Every Chain by Tasha Cobbs
Clean This House by Isaac Carree

I was going through the process of transition as I was exiting one season of life and entering into another one.”Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it. I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” Isaiah 43:19 God began to deal with me and take me through a healing and a cleansing process. As I was going through this transition in my life He began to reveal them to me as if in parables. As it is in the natural so it is in the spirit. He uses natural methods of cleaning our physical house to cleaning our spiritual house.Through this was birthed “CLEAN THIS HOUSE”I noticed the more transparent I became and the more I released the more freedom, the more peace that I felt and the chains that once held me captive and kept me in bondage began to break in my life.My prayer is that as we take this journey together that God will give you a new look on life and that you will find the courage to #CLEANTHISHOUSE

Transition

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Moving Forward by Israel Houghton
It’s A New Season by Martha Munizzi and Israel Houghton
I woke up this morning and as the tears began to fill my pillow I found myself dealing with so many mixed emotions. I couldn’t believe that what seemed so far away is actually here, but while at the same time the things that I thought would last forever have come to a close. I realized that as I go through this transition there are somethings that I am going to have to deal with as I am mentally, emotionally and physically closing out somethings before entering into this next season. Transition is closing of one season and the opening of another. Transition is not always easy because in order for you to walk fully into the next season WE have to bring closure to what was to be able to properly transition. If we don’t we will enter into our next season with our last. Deal with whatever or whomever hurt you, caused you pain, the things that didn’t work out, whatever the thing(s) you may have loss. What was is no longer. A lot of us physically move forward but mentally and emotionally we are still trapped in yesterday. Whatever you have to do to bring closure, do it. Do it so you can be delivered,  be set free, live in peace and  walk in TOTAL VICTORY in this next season. Bitter sweet moment, but I’m dealing with it and I’m leaving it all at the foot of Jesus Christ. Better days are ahead and I’m moving foward.#CLEANTHISHOUSE