Episode 61- Spring cleaning to Renew

Just like we open the windows and wipe down the walls for a spring cleaning in our house , we sometimes have to refresh our spiritual routine 

Transcript

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This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Hello, it's Nicole Florence. I'm your host of Shine, and if you notice there are no birds today because I'm in my closet. Um yeah, so uh the rains have come and everyone's home and uh got a house full, so I am hiding out in my closet today. So this week, just thinking about uh renewal and um we talked about spiritual birth, uh spiritual birthday, I should say, um, in a way that we even consider our own birthdays. But I also know that this is the time of spring, and I love spring, right? Um I'm in Illinois with many of you, and let's face it, it's been a long dark gray, cold winter. Um, and I think many of us we have been so teased by these beautiful sunny spring days, but we also know with it comes plenty of spring showers, which we need, we are our farmers need for sure. And I know that something that allows me to appreciate spring and the need for growth, the need for rain to wash away the old and to nourish the soil, to nourish the ground and the seeds. Um, you know, this time of year we go out and buy our plants and our flowers and just get really excited about the uh colors and the smells and the joys of spring, which let's face it, we can't appreciate if you haven't been through that arduous winter. But along with spring also is the time for spring cleaning, where for many of us we um open our windows, we burp the house. I hope you all have heard about that, right? Burping the house, allowing the house to breathe, we wash down you know our windows so we can see more clearly, uh, we wipe down the walls so there's that kind of fresh scent throughout the home because we've been all cooped up all winter, and it's one of my favorite things to do and just makes you feel good, right? Inside or out, um, and gives a whole different feeling to your home, even if you start to declutter a little bit. But I know I need to do some spiritual spring cleaning as well. I am a creature of habit and I love to do my daily prayers in the morning. I, you know, I'm still into the Bible recap where I do my daily readings and and follow-ups with Terry Lee Cobble, y'all. But I know I also can kind of get into a rut. I can get very remote and robotic in doing those routine things, which you know on one side helps me stay obedient and faithful, but then on the other side, sometimes they lose a little bit of that um spiritual passion and feeling when they become more remote and robotic and dutiful as opposed to passionately um spiritual. And it is, it's important to have a little bit of both, right? Um, I think that's part of what um gives us comfort and gives us a sense of remembrance, especially as we go to church and do communion and we have daily readings, it keeps us focused on God and where our hearts and minds should be. But there are some times we need to shake it up a little bit, and that's where it reminds me of kind of the spring cleaning we do for our homes and our landscaping, that sometimes we need a little spiritual cleaning. Because as much as we rely on that muscle memory, um, we know that we need to work new muscles, we need to gain a little strength, we need to tax ourselves a little bit to make sure we are truly growing in our relationship with God. And so that can look like a lot of different things. It may be that you do a different type of devotional, it may be that you try to memorize new scripture, whether it's uh once a week or once a month. It may be that you broaden your spiritual community, or even try to minister to those in a different way. I know one thing that I am going to try to do is I need to get better at praying. Um that is something that I feel is my weakest skill that I have, and I know how to use my words, and you know, I'm a speaker with what I know medically, but I love how so many of you have such beautiful prayers, and for me, I want to pray like that, and I got a beautiful prayer book from um a sister of Christ KP, and it really um caused me to think as much as I do my daily journals and I read this year. I am gonna start doing a different daily prayer where I'm going to write it and I'm going to say it. So that way I have a collection of my personal prayers, of thanksgiving, of requests. You know, I know that God knows my heart and my asks even before I say it. But that is where I want to strengthen my words and my pleas and praise for Him through my words. So I challenge you as we come to spring and this time of renewal, that maybe you think of ways that you can do a little spiritual spring cleaning, so to speak, in your relationship with God and how you can strengthen it maybe in different ways. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.