Refining Your Home

In the center of my 700 square foot apartment there is a huge 42 inch black box. If our civilization were to be destroyed, covered in layers of ashes, and visited by future historians, I’m pretty sure they would think that these big black boxes are some sort of altar at which we worship. Cutting back on television is just one of the many actions you can take to refine your home.

Defining Refined

Many people have the misconceived perception that refined means snobbish or self-righteous. They take this notion and use it to justify their lack of effort in using proper language, keeping their clothes clean, or appreciating fine art and music. There is no excuse for being lazy.

Think Positive, Not Negative

I think the best way to make your home more refined is to think about the positive and fun ideas that you can implement. Too often we only focus on the things we need to stop doing when we try to improve. For example, if I want my home to be a better place I might make a list that looks like the following:

No more Television
No more Nintendo
No more dirty baby clothes all over the floor
No, No, No.

Try taking a more positive tone about what you will be doing. Make a list of exciting items that may appear like the following list:

Read an inspiring book
Listen to uplifting music
Clean the baby clothes
Do, Do, Do

You need to fill your life with good, not just get rid of the bad. If you simply try to remove the bad, without replacing it with something good, then you will notice that the bad slowly ekes its way back into your life. In the Bible there is a story that illustrates this principle very well. A man has an evil spirit cast out of him. Soon thereafter seven more unclean spirits enter the man because he did not fill himself with goodness.

I must confess that I’m not a completely refined person. In fact the reason I use the baby clothes example is because I’m looking around my house and noticing that my 1 year olds clothes are scattered across my 700 square foot floor; some are even next to my huge black altar.