by Teresa Altman

Created on: June 11, 2008

When my children were young, a constant source of my anguish was the condition of my youngest daughter's room. Like many adolescent children, she struggled with the concept of household chores. Her room was in a continuous state of disarray; clean clothes mixed with dirty clothes on the furniture and floor, school work scattered among the toys, dirty dishes with crumbs or leftovers lying on the floor like confetti.

One day in particular, I recall my daughter asking to go skating with her friends. As I considered her request, I saw it as an opportunity to, finally, have her clean her room. I offered my approval with the condition that, before she left, her room was cleaned to my acceptance. On hearing my terms, she hurriedly turned and ran to her room to get started. Time was of essence.

Barely an hour following my proffer, she returned to me with eyes glowing and chest puffed. "Come see my room now!" she said. Amazed that she could clean her room so quickly, I cautiously followed her down the hall for the final inspection.

At first glance, I was astonished! I could actually see the carpet and it was vacuumed! Her bed was made and her school books neatly stacked on her desk. Nothing was out of order. I saw no toys, no food crumbs, or dishes, and there were no clothes in sight clean or dirty. How did she do it?

She stood proudly during my inspection, gleaming with pleasure. But when I walked over to her closet, I noticed that her glow suddenly paled. As I opened the closet door, all the toys and school papers that had been crammed into her closet and piled on the floor, came spilling out the door. Next, I walked over to her bed, bent over and raised the bed skirt. There I found all the dishes, food and clothes.

Needless to say, my daughter didn't go skating with her friends because the remainder of her day was spent cleaning her closet and beneath her bed. That was the day my daughter learned she cannot hide the dirt from her mother (inspector) and that actions come with consequences.

What does God see when He becomes our inspector? At some time in every ones life, we have hidden our secret dirt under a blanket of darkness, in the closet of our heart. Hidden from our own consciousness as well, we are convinced our filth cannot be seen. It would hurt too much to know it is there. So our self-righteousness refuses to look within the subconscious heart, where knowledge exists.

It is not an easy or painless task, using the light of God's truth to chase the hidden darkness

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