Cleanup Work

Earlier this year, Ryan bought a couple of ferns for our pirogi. We managed to NOT kill them throughout the entire summer, and now that it's gotten...chilly...outside, we decided to bring them inside to see if we could keep them alive at least a bit longer. They may not last the winter, but they'll have a better shot than if we left them on their little pillars outside.

Last night, after a pretty rotten day for me and a pretty draining day for Ryan, we stopped by TJ Maxx to see if we could find little plant stands that would work for our ferns. We completely lucked out by finding two stands that we both fell in love with ON the spot - and the price was better than we expected!

We came home, placed the plant stands in their designated locations, and Ryan went out into the chilly night to bring in the ferns.

They were...a bit littered in leaves. They've been perched directly underneath the monstrosity of a tree in our backyard and it's just been making little deposits in our ferns for lo these many weeks.

While Ryan took a much-deserved nap last night, I settled in beside the plants with a grocery sack in hand and began to pluck out the dead leaves.

Every leaf I pulled out just revealed a new one underneath. I had no idea so many dead leaves could hide in one plant!

I finally got them all out - or at least most of them. The ones I could find. And at the end of the cleaning party, my work was rewarded with a clean, beautiful fern.

A football game played softly in the distant background, and Ryan slept, so I was alone with my thoughts as I pulled dead leaves from ferns. And in that silence, God got to me in the way He hasn't been able to in a while. {Busyness is a terrible thing for hearing the Voice of God.}

This week, I've really struggled with my attitude. I've had bad bouts with insecurity, discontentment, anger, hurt, you name it. I feel like as soon as I work through one thing - another one hits me in the face. It's discouraging. Oh yeah - and discouragement was another thing I dealt with. See what I mean?

And in those moments of plucking dead leaves, God reminded me that my heart really needed a similar cleaning. That I needed to pull away those dead, ugly, crispy things that make me less of a person than I know I can be. Should be. And He reminded me ever so gently that He's willing to do that work on me if I'll let Him.

Cleanup work isn't fun - but the result is so beautiful.

Please, my Jesus, pluck those dead, ugly things out of me. Make me the person You know I can be. Beautiful for You.

Thankfulness, Day 8: After Ryan read this blog post, he sang for me {which I love} the song Create in me a clean heart, Oh God...which made me just flat out thankful again for the gift of music. I listen to a whole lot of it every day and have had dozens of songs speak goodness into my heart. I bet you have, too. Say thanks to someone who brought music to your life. Whether you hop on Twitter and thank an artist or say thanks to someone who sings in your church every Sunday...say thanks to someone who brings music to you!