What happens to your house if you never give it a regular cleaning? If it’s anything like my house, it gets dirty. Dust builds up on the furniture. Used dishes pile up in the kitchen. Dirty laundry accumulates in the bedroom. Cobwebs form in the upper corners of the room.
To keep a house clean, one needs to clean it. And if one has high standards for their quality of life, they clean their home regularly and faithfully.
The same rule applies to our state of mind. In the daily course of interacting with other people’s fears and opinions, watching news reports of conflict, disaster and trouble around the world, or simply minding your own business, but still entertaining random fears and doubts about life that may land in thought; to keep oneself healthy and strong, a regular and vigorous mental housekeeping is required.
It is wise to never take the state of your mind for granted! Protect it. Guard it. Keep it clean and wholesome. Love yourself by taking the time out necessary to keep your mental premises free of any mortal mind clutter that would sap your joy and strength.
One way to keep your thought in a good place is to maintain a high standard for your quality of thought. Value spiritual mindedness. Expect to have a crisp clear spiritual view of God’s reality as you go through your day. Accept nothing less than a joyous grateful thought as your thought. Be ready and quick to cast out any type of disease-fear, angst, inclination to react, or feeling of hopelessness. Live to love, exercise your God-given dominion to master any trouble with wisdom and understanding. Stay patient, forgive, be compassionate and generous. Above all, strive to put on the Mind of Christ where God inspires every thought, and there is no room for fear or error to enter. Commit to a routine of prayer and study that keeps your thought inspired and ahead of any error-suggestions that may come your way.
Keep up your mental housekeeping and enjoy the benefits of keeping thought in a good place! You will be happier and healthier.
Oh, what a good ‘housekeeping’ plan, Evan! I shall be sweeping cobwebs of uncertainty, fear, and worry out every day!
Purrrrrfect!! I never mind being reminded of this! Thank you thank you thank you
Thank you for this vital reminder of the need to be constant and thorough in our spiritual discipline (discipleship). It is the way to what the whole world is reaching out for, health and happiness.
My husband and I have been doing a remodel in our home for the last 2 months which prior to the remodel we had to clean out every single drawer, closet etc in the entire house. What a job it was but the clutter and accumulation of stuff is gone. We have a new, clean home to enjoy and fill with happiness and joy! Like our thoughts, keeping them clean and wholesome is an ongoing tough job but the benefits one gets when we remove the doubt, fear, confusion that tends to take up space and energy is like purging our home….it takes a lot of work but the rewards are freeing. Take time each day to throw out an item that is taking up space in your home and also give up one negative thought that is taking up space in your state if mind.
Thank you Evan
I like Deb’s suggestion of chucking a negative thought each day!
Beautiful reminder, Evan!!
My mind does not need to be in a state where I would scribble on everything with the magicless markers of suffering and sin. “Keep it clean and wholesome.” God determines my reality – forever ordered and spruced in immaculate good.
Evan,
Starting with the delightful picture, on through your loving, insightful directives, and then with each response, I find my thought being lifted and encouraged and cleared. So very grateful!
Thank you, Even and commenters.
A valuable reminder for everyone!
Perfect, Evan!
Thanks!
How can we employ our “mental housekeeping” to help and heal the violence and shooting and killing at the mosques in Beautiful Christ Church, New Zealand? How does our keeping our own thoughts clear, clean and spiritually beautiful help to heal the violence and upheaval on our Planet today…..???
S&H page 96-97
We are declaring and really understanding in deep prayer that man is not a tool of hatred. Nor a victim of hatred. We are deeply searching our own thoughts to see that there isn’t a smidgeon of hatred lurking.We are understanding the omnipresence of divine Love right where there is upheaval. Many examples of Love overcoming evil in Christ Church are surfacing. Jews starting a fund to help the victims’ families, an outcry of world support, and many acts of kindness. Love triumphs over hate every time. As we individually do our mental housekeeping we are lifting ourselves and all of mankind higher. The power of one right thinking person is all over the Scriptures! Let’s roll up our sleeves. We have work to do.
Oh thank you very much Grace!! You said everything needed and also answered Bevi`s question so true and lovingly and comprehensively – xo !
Thank You so much, Grace! I just felt a need to see/know that CSers are using their own thought as a Healing Ground for the whole World and not just for themselves! Much Love, Bevi
Thanks Bevi for your questions and Grace for your perfect reply. It made me think that the very thing that hatred wants is to breed more hatred, but ultimately it spurs thoughtful people to act with love, kindness, compassion, and neighborliness instead. How wonderful that Love erases evil! We just have to keep our own thought clean and clear so that we are able to receive the Divine direction on how to act in the face of evil.
Thank you Evan for this inspiring article and for each commenters call to expand the thoughts. Love it!!!
Stellar answer, Grace!
I daily pray what it says in the Bible, “Create in me a clean heart (and mind), oh God, and renew a right spirit in me.” It’s my job to retain that clean heart and mind, keeping my thoughts based on the Mind that was in Christ Jesus.
Thanks, Grace, for your beautiful response to Bevi’s question – very complete and thoughtful!
Spring cleaning has taken on a whol new meaning
Thank U Evan, and fellow bloggers❤️❤️❤️
Thanks to all! I tried to go on JSHonline this a.m., but it’s not working. I have a poem that I have on my refrigerator—“Housecleaning” by Lorna Friend from the January 1, 1977 Sentinel. It reminds me about cleaning out my thinking as well as the house. I won’t put it here, but you can find it on the site. It goes right along with this subject. I agree that when we correct our thinking we are helping the world.
Thank you Evan and Everyone for your comments. Recently I gained a greater appreciation of the title of the fifth chapter of Science and Health, “Animal Magnetism Unmasked”. What would you do if after cleaning your kitchen you left the kitchen for a few minutes and when you returned you found dirty dishes and other filth? You might conclude that someone else was in your house. In that case it wouldn’t help to re-clean the kitchen because the same intruder would just dirty it again. You first need to uncover (unmask) the intruder in your house and throw the intruder out because only then would you be able to again maintain a clean kitchen.
The “kitchen” in this case is symbolic of our individual consciousness and the intruder is “animal magnetism”. Below from page 103 of Science and Health is a definition of Animal Magnetism.
As named in Christian Science, animal magnetism or hypnotism is the specific term for error, or mortal mind. It is the false belief that mind is in matter, and is both evil and good; that evil is as real as good and more powerful. This belief has not one quality of Truth.
(SH 103:18–23 (to 1st .))
Note the last sentence. The “intruder” is not real. But to the degree that we believe in it, it can seem very real.
For example, about exactly a year ago the management of the company for which I work made a policy change. I disagreed with this policy change and voiced my disapproval, but management decided to keep the policy in place. This policy hurt productivity and the quality of our products. A lot of people disagreed with the policy and would have regular “complain” sessions about the new policy outside of the ear of mgmt. It made it very hard for me to continue working for this company and therefore made me less happy when both at work and away from work. But about a week ago I uncovered (unmasked) the intruder in my consciousness. I was accepting the belief that “mind is in matter, and is both evil and good; that evil is as real as good and more powerful”. In other words, I was believing that persons in management had their own minds that could implement an “evil” policy and that there was nothing I could do about it. But once I unmasked this belief it was easy to realize this belief could not be true when God is all-powerful and God is good and the only Mind. So I had a couple of prayer sessions using those ideas until it became obvious to me that management reflected the one Mind and therefore there could be no bad policy, regardless of there seeming to be just that. Within a day or two of coming to that realization the policy was changed. I didn’t have to say anything or take a single “human” step. Simply realizing through prayer the truth about the situation resulted in the situation changing. I will never doubt the power of prayer because I’ve had far too many experiences like this that prove to me the effectiveness of prayer! But it’s also critical to “unmask” the errors we are holding to in order that prayer can be effective in our experience.
Here are some links to some other SpiritView blogs that were helpful to me.
https://spiritview.net/arguments-of-mam/
https://spiritview.net/arguments-of-mam-part-2/
Hi Brian, thank you so much for the link to the two SpiritViews about MAM -very helpful and healing.
And thank you so much Evan, for your so clear explanations, yes would say treatment about MAM .
Thanks, Brian! That’s a Perfect example of how CSers can be working for the World in their thought!!!
Awesome example, Brian!
I know that if I stick to the truth I do not contribute to the evil in this world. It is hard to stay on this
when you see innocents suffer violence. But I have to grow with understanding about this.
I just hang on and stick to the truth.
Oh thank you Evan for this really necessary advice to keep our mental household clean!
It seems as if it is not so simple, but with studying the weekly lesson sermon and praying for ourselves (what MBEddy advises us to do daily) we can renew daily our efforts for it. Am working on it.
For instance today I had a Non-CS visitor. And we talked about the corrupt govern ment in some countries. She uttered fear about that. Immediately I replied “no no no I am not fearful at all, I will not allow that any fear touches me”. I am not fearful, as I know as a Christian Scientist, that almighty good and wise God governs all mankind.
That was only part of keeping our mental household clean. Am grateful for Evan’s comprehensive reminder about our real spiritual duty. It is so lovingly and clear explained!
Thanks, Brian for your wonderful sharing. The 2 links were very helpful. I will indeed read this topic many more times. You and Evan have really been helpful.
Evan and Brian – WONDERFUL comments. Other dialog meaningful too. Thank you all.
Thank you Evan. Much appreciated.Its hard work to keep out the ideas of wrong doing qe are constantly bombarded with, but its also very necessary work.