A story the Lord gave to me

My Daughter Donna-

Imagine someone came to your door and presented you with a brand-new, 4, 000 sq foot, completely paid for home. Every little thing in this house is brand new, right down to the smallest tile and shiniest door knob. This house has everything you need for yourself and your family, and it is yours to keep, completely free, as long as you take care of it.

What will you do?  Chances are you’ll keep it cleaner than you kept your old house.  You’ll do all the regular chores, but you’ll go the extra mile.  You’ll move the furniture and vacuum under it.  You’ll get down on your hands and knees to scrub the kitchen floor. You’ll even put those little furniture-pad under your dining table so as not to scratch the hardwood floors.  Hey, you might even hire a housecleaner, since you no longer have a mortgage!

When you first move it, you’ll make every effort to get your family on board to take care of the gift you’ve been given.  You won’t allow kids to eat on the carpet, you’ll make people take their shoes off at the front door, and you’ll even wash the windows.  You’ll buy one of those little squeegees and clean the showers doors daily. You’ll clean behind the toilet.  Remember, this house is yours free as long as you take care of it.

If you were given this gift, I know you’d do everything you could to take care of it, to ensure that you and your family got to enjoy the gift as long as possible.  You’d want your kids to grow up in this wonderful home (that has a sport court in the back!) and you want your husband and you to enjoy the blessing of not wondering how you’re going to make this month’s mortgage. Your new home will be a place of peace, love and coziness.  All who come here will feel at home. As long as you take care of it.

You’ve been given a similar gift, but you don’t take such good care of it.  You’ve been given a physical body, a gift from the Me, and it is the home of My Holy Spirit. What’s more, your body is not just the home of the Holy Spirit, it’s the TEMPLE of the Lord.

So why do you treat it like an old shack, whose floors are dirty and whose streets are clogged with grease?  Instead of treating your body like the beautiful home it is, you treat it like a hotel room that you’re only using briefly, and that someone else will come in to clean later.

Donna, it is your responsibility to take care of your body.  YOU are to be a place of love, peace and a sense of home for your children for many years.  So why are you feeding it garbage?  Why are you destroying the Temple of God that I’ve given you a precious gift, yours to use for as long as I deem?  What if My plan is to give you 90 years, but because of over-indulgence and laziness, you only get 60? 

It’s time, Donna.  It’s time to take care of your home and treat it as the beautiful gift that it is.