Taking out the trash

Sharon Jaynes writes at her website:

“Once I had a door-to-door vacuum salesman come to my house. To my detriment, I let him in. Before I could convince him I did not need a new vacuum cleaner, he had his demonstration trash sprinkled all over my foyer floor. Almost two hours later, I finally got him to leave.

What was my first mistake? You know it! My first mistake was to let him cross the threshold of my doorway and enter my house. Once he was in, it was difficult to get him out. It is the same way with our thoughts. Once we entertain a thought, once we allow the “salesman” to scatter his “trash” in our minds, it is hard to dismiss it or push it back out again. The place of easiest victory is at the threshold; don’t even let the trash in the door. It has been said, “Every spiritual battle is won or lost at the threshold of the mind.” I think victory is possible once the thought has passed over the threshold, but it sure will save us a lot of heartache and pain if we begin to recognize Satan’s lies and reject them from the start.”

I came across this looking for the exact citation for, “Hold every thought captive for Christ.” (Paul)  The complete wording and citation is, For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)

At this age, I wouldn’t make the mistake of letting in a salesman of anything unless I had invited him or called for an appointment, but my goodness, the dust and dirt still creeps in and I find ways to avoid cleaning it up (often checking FB or my blog instead). Better to have a good seal and filter so there isn’t so much to clean up later.