Thank you to all who participated in our spring cleaning contest!
To conclude the week, we leave you with this Friday Funny sent to us by June Lee. The caption reads: “Just when you thought you had everything….”
Warmly,
Carolyn
(for Nicole, Kristin and Janelle)
The winner of the grand prize for our “Pick One Spot” contest is… TINA POWERS. Congratulations, Tina! You did a fabulous job revamping your storage area!
Here is a brief explanation from our winner as to how the spot got messy and how she got it organized:
About a year and a half ago God provided us a new home closer to our church and we decided to refinish the basement to provide play space for the kids, a home office for my husband and storage for all our homeschooling materials. We never “unpacked” the boxes and moved them into this storage area in the corner - with hopes of only having to unpack them once. Well, the refinishing of the basement was halted mid-project - but we still needed the stuff from the boxes, and we needed to put more stuff in the storage area. Well, we ended up with chaos!!
My husband built new storage shelves and we went to work. I have to also mention that I had the help of a very good friend, Corrine who kept me motivated and came in to help my cluttered mind make sense of the mess and reorganize. She is definitely a grace gift to me! Thank You, Corrine!
It feels good to have one area gutted and cleaned! We have more rooms to go (they aren’t all as bad as this one) - but now that we are started - we are motivated to keep moving!
Tina, looking at your “after” picture has motivated us all to “keep moving” with cleaning and organizing our homes for God’s glory!
Our fifth and final runner-up is Nancy who recently graduated from college and moved back home. We think you’ll be inspired by her humble email:
Hello to the ladies of girltalk!
Such timely words you all provided me with!
Allow me to explain! I’m a messy person. I have to admit it. I grew up in a messy family. For years and years, my three sisters and I have been working to fight against the clutter. But deep down, I think we’re all pretty messy. I have to admit that my messiness comes from being lazy. My room is filled with clutter! I honestly have a difficult time finding anything! I have been so short-sighted in failing to see how cleanliness is an opportunity to bring glory to God. When things are messy, it is more easy to get distracted searching for things and any added distraction takes away from ministry time or simply being still & acknowledging God!
But God, in His great timing and wonderful grace (not to mention, humor) provided me with the great encouragement I needed through your spring cleaning contest! Our Savior is truly so sovereign and good!
After reading your encouraging entries on cleaning, lightning struck over and over! I realized that cleaning is a great way to share God’s beauty with others. I was inspired. Instead of sitting around the house all day doing nothing and choosing to watch tv (so fruitless!), I promised God that I would clean daily for His glory. I committed myself to clean for several reasons: 1) as I grew up in an unbelieving family, this would be a great way to be a “light,” a true witness; 2) to make better use of my time; 3) to be a disciplined steward for Him (we must discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness! 1 Timothy 4:7); 4) a means to serve my family joyfully; 5) a way to bless others—those who might visit, so that they might be able to delight in God’s beauty; 6) a way to practice for the future high calling of being both a wife and mother, who maintains a respectable household for her husband and children to delight in; 7) of course, to GLORIFY God (1 Corinthians 10:31).
With that testimony behind me, I would like to present to you the “before” and “after” of my room at home! Hope this really gives you a good picture of just how God really helped me to accomplish this daunting task! It was truly a joyful process for me and I pray that you would all be blessed and encouraged, too.
Your fellow worker and sister,
Nancy
Congratulations Nancy—on your graduation and your clean room!
If you are a parent and did not have a chance to join us in the Covenant Life Church familyroom last month, please take a listen. Our very own Brian and Kristin Chesemore, along with pastors Kenneth Maresco and John Loftness and their wives participated in a q&a session for parents of young children, teenagers, and young adults. A message by Grant Layman and helpful questions for parents of young children and teenagers are also available at the Covenant Life Church website.
Today’s winner sent her pictures along with this delightful email:
First, please know that I am probably the most excited person about this contest. The day you posted it, I did not get to read your blog until everyone was in bed. I literally ran and woke my husband up and told him about it.
You see the room that I chose is my school room. But lately, it has been the “hurry and throw the stuff in there and close the door, we will deal with it later” room…. I have been so down about that room that every time I walked by it I would shut the door and just carry the weight on my shoulders. When my kids would say their math is in the school room, I would tell them, “Don’t go in there I will loose you, just find another math around the house to do.”
I spent all day Saturday and part of Sunday organizing it. Whether I win or not, I feel so good that this room is done…. Thank you for the encouragement.
Congratulations Kellie and hope you and your family enjoy your newly-beautified school-room!
Our runner up for today is Patty from Indiana, PA. This sweet mom helped her daughter tackle her bedroom. I’m liking this idea! Hey, Mom, how about some mother-daughter bonding time cleaning out my bedroom closet???
Congrats, Patty. Y’all did a fabulous job with this room.
Just after Christmas this past year, Steve and I went on vacation with some friends. On the road trip home I read aloud to him from a manuscript of a soon-to-be released book that my parents had let me borrow. For most of the drive on Interstate 81, we enjoyed a memorable and helpful discussion, which touched on many points throughout the book. It was insightful, fresh, well-written, and although directed at single men and women, surprisingly applicable to a six-year married couple like us.
We’re so happy to announce that this book has recently been published and is the next selection for our girltalk book club! The title: Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart
Crossway, the publisher, describes the book as an “easy-to-read guide for men and women [that] presents a biblical alternative to the culture’s broken system of ‘serial dating.’” And Dad adds his endorsement:
“Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart defines and describes biblical masculinity and femininity for single adults. I would also encourage those who are married to read it. John Ensor is a creative and theologically astute writer. I have thanked him for writing this book and you will too.”
As Dad explains, this is more than just a relationships book for singles. It has valuable insight married men and women need to hear (and probably wish they’d heard much earlier!) and can be a useful tool for parents seeking to train their teenagers in biblical masculinity and femininity (although please exercise wisdom based on the maturity of your child).
You can order the book by clicking on the link on our sidebar. We will give you several weeks to obtain it before we begin reading assignments. Then together, we’ll all consider how to do things right in matters of the heart.
Wow! You all have been busy. We received a deluge of amazing “before” and “after” photos for our “Pick One Spot” contest. While we wish we had enough money to reward everyone for their hard work, hopefully you are all enjoying a newly beautified closet or room.
You didn’t make this easy for us—there were so many remarkable transformations! After much deliberation, however, we managed to narrow it down to five runners-up and one grand-prize winner. Each of the runners-up will receive $25 and the grand-prize winner will receive $100, good for making another spot in her home beautiful.
For the next four days we’ll be posting “before” and “after” pictures of the winners. Friday we’ll reveal the identity of the winner of the $100 prize. Today we have two runners-up for you:
Priscila is a young mom who wrote to say: “Thanks for the incentive. I finally got the push I needed and was able to clean our office/spare bedroom which was a total chaos…I have been enjoying the clean room so much since last weekend that I even forgot to send you guys the email.”
Our second runner-up is a student named Rebekah who was inspired to get her bedroom organized in time for graduation.
Congratulations to you both!
C.J. and Chad love to eat crab legs. I only cook the kind you buy frozen, however, for this very reason. (Thanks Clara!)
May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you this weekend!
Carolyn
for Nicole, Kristin, and Janelle
Ladies, we are on countdown. You have until midnight tonight to send in your “before” and “after pictures for our spring clean contest. To all of you who have already sent in your entries, we are pouring over your pics and loving all of the progress. We have seen some pretty amazing transformations. So much fun!
9 hours to go…
