I spent the majority of my teen years living in what I lovingly referred to as “organized chaos.” My room was a sight my mother took pains to avoid beholding: clothes strewn so adeptly over the floor you weren’t sure there actually was one, knick-knacks and trinkets piled high on dressers and bookshelves, and a bed which one could never be certain had ever been made since the day it arrived. But, ask me where my scriptures, or my homework, or a pencil was and I could find the desired object in less than thirty seconds. Like I said…organized chaos.
I married a man who is the exact opposite. The moment clutter begins to build up he’s on top of it, finding a place for everything and tossing out every unnecessary item. Can you imagine what it was like for him to be married to me? And then to have children? Needless to say he’s dialed down the neat freak a bit over the years, and I’ve learned to focus more on the organized rather than the chaos.
I bring all of this up because within the last few months I’ve been feeling some big impressions to put my house in order. In the Doctrine and Covenants, a collection of revelations given to Joseph Smith (a prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – nicknamed the Mormon Church), we read:
“Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God” (88:119).
These same words are repeated in Section 109:8.
“Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion” (132:8).
We have many houses that need to be placed in order. The first is our own homes. Earlier in the year I began to feel a great need to begin going through my house, room by room, and removing a lot of unnecessary things. Our garbage can was being filled almost to the brim with several things we hadn’t used in a long, long time. I made it through the living room, through the hallway drawers, and through most of my room. I cleaned out the kids’ closets. My next project is the pantry. In doing this I’m making room for storage items. At least, that’s what was in my mind at the time.
As teens you may not be able to go through your home as thoroughly. Tossing what you deem “unnecessary” things out of your parents’ closet probably won’t place you at the top of their favorite kids list. So what can you do to help keep things in order? Where can you create a place that can invite the Holy Spirit of the Lord to reside?
The answer is quite simple, and many of you have probably already figured it out (and are groaning and ready to turn off the computer): your own room. Even if you share a room with sixteen other kids, you can still make your little corner of the room a place of order.
I’m not talking about keeping your little spot in the house absolutely perfectly clean. Let’s be realistic. You are, after all, reading a piece by a woman who can’t keep her side of the bed from looking like a tornado hit it sometimes during the night. You can, however, keep it from looking like a tornado hit it. Even so, you need to go a step further.
Placing our houses in order means so much more than having a tidy house. What sorts of things adorn your shelves, your walls, your desks? Are they reminders of Christ and His work that we’re supposed to be helping with? When you enter your room, is there a good spirit residing in your own special corner? Your environment should act as a haven from the troubles and trials in this world.
Keeping your room picked up because your mom tells you to is a good thing. Keeping your room picked up because you desire to dwell where God’s Spirit can be there to heal, to comfort, or to give you solace is even better.
