Cleaning and the creation mandate

Two months ago I wrote about culture and the creation mandate. Tonight's topic is more trivial, but relevant to the lives of many women and fewer men. Does keeping house have anything to do with God and his plans for my life, or is it just an annoying necessity with little meaning?

I believe that we can see keeping a house orderly and attractive as part of our Creation Mandate. God made men and women in his image to rule over the specific spheres he has appointed to them (Genesis 1:26 - 28). For all those who live in houses, our mandate to rule well must include our homes!

When we create order and beauty within our homes, we reflect the order and beauty of God's character. Just as Adam was to "tend and keep" the garden (Genesis 1:15), we are to tend and keep the areas God has given us. We are created in God's image to exercise wise and godly rule over the places and tasks he gives us as individuals.

So if you choose to take up my get that stuff out the door challenge, you don't have to see it solely as a mundane household chore. You can view it as one way to act as a person made in the image of God, and to clear your life of things that cause you to spend time on what is unimportant. Make room for people, for beauty, and for order.