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I think I get my frugal and prudent spending habits and mindset from parents who were products of the Great Depression when every penny counted. My Mom would sing out \u201cShut off the lights! Turn up the air conditioner!\u201d And, in the winter, \u201cTurn down the heat and put on a sweater!\u201d
Here I am, in the 21st Century and I am her. In the winter, I keep my heat at 65 degrees at night and push it up only a few degrees in the day time and I wear a sweater. I am so conscious of the electric bill that I often shut lights off so much that I have to cautiously maneuver my way through the house to get to the next room.
I\u2019m going somewhere with my history and economics lesson. We are in the Lenten season (the 40 days moving toward Easter Sunday) — Hallelujah! Up from the grave He arose! And, our interior check-up requires turning on the lights, brighter than ever inside the rooms of our hearts, to search out areas that still need to have a power wash. I’m thinking of my daughter who has a love for power washing — getting grit and grime off of the house and paved areas. This photo is of my daughter and granddaughter giving me one of my annual Mother’s Day gifts — power washing my screened-in patio. Squeaky clean afterwards!
This “pilgrimage” (a journey to a place associated with someone or something well known or respected) toward the grandest celebration of our Christian faith, Resurrection Sunday, is a time of becoming the best version-of-ourselves. But it doesn\u2019t happen by accident. It happens through an exciting collaboration between us and God.
Psalm 139:23-24 says: \u201cSearch me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.\u201d
Here\u2019s the deal: Inside our hearts, over time, some less-than-ideal habits show up. Habits like crankiness, unforgiveness, complaining, worry, unbelief, fault-finding, and other areas that need to be power-washed out!
The Bible illuminates (lights up) those areas. Brace yourself, I\u2019m lighting up this scripture and, yikes, it packs a punch: \u201cFrom within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.\u201d (Mark 7:21-23)
Lord, have mercy! And, bring on the high beams! I don\u2019t like those \u201cevils\u201d because they all represent darkness and I sure don\u2019t want them in my heart or my life. Psalm 119:105 says \u201cYour Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.\u201d
Placing the Bible (the lamp) at the center of our lives is like walking through the house turning on lights. \u201cAhh, that\u2019s better. Yes, that\u2019s brighter.” I love how The Message Bible paraphrases that scripture: \u201cBy your words, I can see where I\u2019m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path.\u201d Exactly so. The light of His Word keeps us from stumbling and helps us find our way.
This pilgrimage aka Lenten season can be the most freeing time of cleaning-up-and-out all those dark places in our hearts. Lord, bring in your cleaning crew with their power washers and clean out all the crevices, corners and hiding places and make my life fresh and new so I will be more like you!
“Change my heart oh God. Make it ever true. Change my heart oh God. May I be like You.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I think I get my frugal and prudent spending habits and mindset from parents who were products of the Great Depression when every penny counted. My Mom would sing out \u201cShut off the lights! Turn up the air conditioner!\u201d And, in the winter, \u201cTurn down the heat and put on a sweater!\u201d Here I am,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23061,23060,23062,23059],"tags":[19,1210,1769,873,23055,23052,12507,23058,23054,40,3718,8728,2395,23051,23053,877,23057,23056,3286],"class_list":["post-15697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-beams","category-lenten-journey","category-pilgrimage","category-power-wash","tag-bible","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-easter","tag-economics-lesson","tag-frugal","tag-great-depression","tag-high-beams","tag-history-lesson","tag-inspiration","tag-lent","tag-lenten-journey","tag-pilgrimage","tag-power-washer-services","tag-prudent","tag-resurrection","tag-search-me-oh-god","tag-up-from-the-grave","tag-word-is-a-lamp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15699,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15697\/revisions\/15699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}