{"id":5339,"date":"2020-03-22T09:00:40","date_gmt":"2020-03-22T14:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5339"},"modified":"2020-02-03T19:24:15","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T01:24:15","slug":"neat-and-tidy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5339","title":{"rendered":"Neat and Tidy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Journal of Joy: Things that make my\nheart smile\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Barbara Dahlgren<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Neat and tidy! That’s how I\nlike it! A place for everything and everything in its place! I like routine,\norder, organization. I like life to run smoothly and at an even keel. Don’t\nrock my boat. Don’t rattle my cage. Don’t shake my tambourine. Don’t upset my\napple cart. Don\u2019t rearrange my stuff. Don\u2019t leave a mess in my pathway. And\ndon’t keep me from marking off a number on my “to-do” list.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, a lot of people aren\u2019t neat and tidy. Unfortunately,\nthey can be in our families. Unfortunately, they can be our co-workers.\nUnfortunately, they can be our boss. Unfortunately, they are all around us. I\nonce said that lack of organization is killing me \u2013 not my lack of\norganization, but the lack in those who surround me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it isn\u2019t just people who aren\u2019t neat and tidy. Life is not\nneat and tidy either. It’s messy. Life is just one inconvenience after another.\nDealing with life\u2019s troubles can be stressful, time consuming, and\noverwhelming. I know that God is with me whether my crisis is big or small, but\nfor some reason that doesn\u2019t always give me as much comfort as it should. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the truth. Life is unpredictable. Major tragedies and minor\ninconveniences will always abound. Disorganized people will always tend to\ndisrupt my life. But more and more I\u2019m realizing that Jesus is not as concerned\nabout my routine, my boat, my cage, my tambourine, my apple cart, my stuff, or my\nfeng shui as I am. He\u2019s more concerned about what I do when unexpected things\nhappen or disorganized people make my organized life chaotic. When I overreact\nor let things irritate and upset me to the point where I am angry or irrational,\nI am not reflecting God\u2019s love. So I\u2019m putting that on my \u201cto-do\u201d list of\nthings I need to work on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, I won\u2019t lie to you. I cannot contain my joy when I get\nhome from a hard day and find my house neat and tidy! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*****<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord, my \u201cto-do\u201d list of\nthings I need to work on overfloweth. My loved ones think I\u2019m borderline OCD,\nbut You know I\u2019m really just a highly organized person. Okay, maybe I\u2019m overly\norganized. So I need Your help to keep things in perspective. Instead of\nobstacles to my peace of mind, let me see opportunities to show forth Your\nlove.    <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Journal of Joy: Things that make my heart smile\u2026 By Barbara Dahlgren Neat and tidy! That’s how I like it! A place for everything and everything in its place! I like routine, order, organization. I like life to run … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}