From Nicole: “You get used to your own dirt…” Sounds like a strange way to start a blog, but this comment has me thinking. I am not sure if it is like this in every city setting, but living in Paris is dirty! Our apartment gets so dusty and dirty and because the walls and carpeting are old and worn my home just always looks grimy to me. I don’t like it and we are not even in Africa yet where the sands blow in the homes all the time!
A friend of mine who lives and does ministry here in France says that it will be okay, not because the dirt situation will change but because you get used to your own dirt and you don’t see it as much after awhile. My first impression was- well, maybe that’s good. I just have to chalk it up to one of the many adjustments we are making here in our new life and weighed against the major adjustments like speaking another language or being so far from family, dirt doesn’t sound so bad. On further thought though- something inside of my type A mind screamed- No! I can’t have my kids breathing this dust and I am sure Adelaide has ingested more than her fair share of dirt this year. I don’t like it. I just don’t want to get used to dirt! Instead I want it to keep bothering me so that I do something about it.
You may be asking why I have shared this whole thought process with you but I think God showed me something through it. How much dirt in our own lives are we just used to now? I am not talking about physical dirt but spiritual dirt- otherwise known as sin. Maybe it just has been hanging around for awhile and we simply don’t see it anymore without the intervention of the Holy Spirit. Maybe we chalk it up to our circumstances and surroundings (ie: living in the city=dirt!) but God wants us to live above our circumstances in His power. Or perhaps we are intentionally ignoring it. I was personally convicted about how I sometimes caught myself talking to my husband. True- life is much harder here, true- we have made lots of sacrifices, true- by the end of my busy day sometimes it is hard to still be nice; not true- it’s okay to be short with him because of all those reasons, definitely not true- I want to get used to it so it doesn’t bother me anymore. What I really want is each time a comment comes to mind that is less than loving (preferably before it comes out of my mouth) I want to think- dirt- yuck! and clean it up immediately. I could also go on about how much easier it is to clean up little messes along the way than to wait until your whole house is trashed and you have to clean for 3 days. Personally, I have prayed that I will never get used to my own dirt. Putting it in these physical terms is easy for me to remember- do you want to join me on this quest? Remember, God likes cleans “houses” even more than some of us women do; in fact He requires them no matter where we live.
Completely unrelated- but fun! Look what we got to enjoy right out of our apartment window! It was the best fireworks display we had ever seen and it was even better because the kids slept right through it and Matt and I enjoyed them right out our bedroom window. To tell you the truth we tried waking the older kids up (the show was at about 10:45 pm) but they took one look and went back to sleep- they were so tired! It wasn't 4th of July- but isn't God good to give us a grand firework show on the 21st of June.