she is skilled in homemaking...

In my quest to live like the Proverbs 31 woman, I have been tackling the section line by line and including it in my prayer life and in my daily tasks. Here is proof that I am actually working on making my house a little more organized and orderly. I want to be skilled in homemaking, um, whatever that is. I think it has to do with making your house comfortable, clean, organized and welcoming.

This is my hall closet that is under our stairs to the attic. We have pretty much just shoved stuff in there. You can see we keep medicines and my husband stashed some CDs in there after he uploaded them all to our iTunes account. We really have no need for the CDs anymore, except maybe in the car. But is that where they are? No. They are in this closet.

Well, I worked on it for about 45 minutes. I put a trash can in the hall and threw out a whole bunch of stuff. It turned out that we had a whole stack of books in the back and some went right to the Goodwill box I had next to the trash can. I also found a great basket for all the medicines in another closet and put all that stuff together.

Much better, right? Who knows how long it will actually stay that way! I think it will, as the medicines are what we mostly go in there for. I can't put too much in there that we need on a daily basis because the sliding door is SOOOOO hard to open and close that I get frustrated trying to get anything in there.

I can count one closet as an accomplishment and know I have two more closets and a room to finish. I took some "before" pictures of those as well, so when I have results, I will show them too. It could be awhile, folks, so don't hold your breath.

You might be thinking that God isn't really looking at my closet and thinking how disappointed He is in my life. I don't think that either. But I believe that God expects me to be respectful with the blessings He has given me. He has given me this house, this life, this man, this job and that stack of CDs. I think that is what Proverbs is saying. I can take pride in a job well done; a closet cleaned. Or I can live in the mess and be frustrated when I can't find anything. I can pass on things that I am finished with and bless others. I can bless my husband, because now he can find the FirstAid kit next time I break more glass. I choose to aspire towards what God has made me. I will continue to strive to be the woman the Hymn is written about: a good wife.

***in case you are wondering, I am reading The Message Remix version of Proverbs. Plain language makes perfection easier to aspire to.