We may all have a difference of opinion on what it means to be clean.

And we may even have a difference of opinion on whether we think we need to clean up anything at all.

Some people say, "We can't have company with the place looking like this!"

Other people say, "The place looks fine ...why make all the fuss?  If they don't accept us for who we are, then it's not who we are."

There's not one right approach, and one wrong approach ...just different.

It's a matter of perspective ...like most things seem to be.

Sometimes we could use a new perspective.

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I remember a time, when I'm embarrassed to say, I was old enough to drive a car ...and should have been old enough to know better.  I was spending the night at the lakes with a friend.

They had a nice cottage ...and it was a nice evening.

Nice for swimming.

And that's where the first "should have been old enough to know better" took hold on us.

It usually starts out the same way ...something that appears either different, or wonderful and exciting.

There was heat lightning that lit up the entire sky ...and we felt it added to the adventure of swimming late at night.  I've often heard that ignorance is bliss ...but, it may have been an entirely different perspective if the lightning had electrified the water.

Eventually, we tired of all our fun ...and settled down within the safety of the cottage. But, we didn't sleep long as we were still a bit charged from all our fun the evening before.  Early morning, we went for a drive.

We came upon the old iron mine ...and to our surprise, we discovered that the souvenir shop had burned completely to the ground.

My friend kicked around in the ashes ...and discovered a souvenir toy cannon. At that point it felt like a treasure hunt.  I was not at all innocent, but facts are facts ...and I was not as enthusiastic as my friend.  I only took the metal frying pan, after he insisted that my mom would appreciate it.

My mom did not appreciate it!

Mom asked pointedly, "Where did this come from?"

I had hid it among her other pans ...I guess, expecting she'd share in the fun of discovery also.

But, after explaining my reasoning ...that I felt that since it would only be bulldozed, Mom  corrected me and told me that they'd be able to salvage most of that stuff.

I shared Mom's wisdom that day with my friend, and we promptly returned all the treasures ...except the most valuable treasure.  We kept the advice of Mom.

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Under a communist dictatorship, the government my claim ownership of everything ...but, in our country we have private property.   Most everything belongs to someone, and if it is a park or nature trail that everyone can share ...we still don't take things that are not solely ours.

If something does not belong exclusively to us ...then we should not act like it is ours.  This is a basic concept that I think everyone should learn, and I felt our children should understand this.  So, when I saw our child and a friend clipping the flowers out of the neighbor's yard ...I opened the window and hollered, "Hey!"

I think it is important to respect other people's things ...and also other people.  But, in respecting other people, it does not mean I have to respect what they do.  There is still a standard of right and wrong ...and I can respectfully tell or remind them of that.

So, if everyone is given a consequence, punishment, or levied a fine ...then things would be more fine.  Doing something wrong could have it's consequences, and if everyone understood that ...they would see a consistent standard, and everyone wouldn't have to feel obliged to point out the wrong by using certain others as examples.  And that would help eliminate a certain amount of teaching, or what we could call borderline gossip.

Actually, there doesn't even have to be consequences ...if people would just sincerely acknowledge the wrong.  We can forgive people for what they've done whether they acknowledge it or not, but it certainly makes the forgiveness much more sweeter when reconciliation is shared. 

The Holy Spirit encourages us to make right, or reconcile our mistakes.  And often we struggle with something we find personally difficult for us to do ...yet, though the struggle may seem even intense at times, our misery is better than having moved beyond that point of not even considering what the Holy Spirit may be prompting us to realize.