Vacation Recovery

Yesterday was filled with recovering from vacation. I was surprised at how busy I was with getting everything back in order.

The phrase that kept running through my mind yesterday was put away.

Unpack suitcases. Put away suitcases and shoes and unworn clothes.

Put away the things we bought while on vacation.

Pick up the mail from the post office. Put away the junk mail. (maybe throw away fit better here...)

Unpack toiletries, refill containers of shampoo, etc. and put away.

Go to the grocery store because there is no food in the house. Put away all the groceries once you haul it all into the house.

Wash the sheets (because you can't remember the last time they were washed) put away the clean sheets on the bed. (Okay, maybe that was stretching it a bit...)

Oh, and I can't forget the laundry! Wash several loads of laundry, put away the clean clothes.

It all took a lot of time and conscious effort to work through all those areas to get things back in order for living life here.

As I was thinking through all that, these verses came to mind:

Ephesians 4:31&32

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (ESV)

 I think (at least for me) it takes a lot of conscious effort to put away all bitterness, wrath, clamor and slander and let God replace it with kindness, being tenderhearted and forgiving. A few verses before this read: 

...to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (verses 22-24)

Thank you God, for creating me in Your likeness. For giving me a new self to put on.

(Just what was running through my head yesterday.)