NO – no – nooooo! Those were words from me when I would hear the kitchen door close or footsteps behind me in the midst of my mopping our not-conducive-to-mud tile flooring. The footsteps would most often be our two young adventurers\baseball players who were never able to escape the mud and dirt of the Mississippi hills.

They would quickly back out the door, but the mud that had accompanied them stayed on my freshly mopped floor. I was always thankful to hear our kids’ footsteps in our home, but the mud didn’t merit the same gratitude.

We humans make lots of tracks. Mine have led to faraway adventures and covered lots of hiking trails. I’ve tracked across all sorts of terrain and left some tracks in places when I veered from my map and directions.

It’s those tracks that I’ve left going to my “prayer closet” that have been the most meaningful AND rewarding. I’ve walked in with burdens, family concerns, questions, and a multitude of requests. There have also been a multitude of entry times when all burdens were lifted and the joy of the Lord was my strength. Much praise would make up a significant portion of those prayers.

Like so many of David’s Psalms, I have voiced heavy prayers in the beginning of my praying, but through the miraculous working of my Heavenly Father, I’ve left my prayer closet with a renewed faith and a comfort that man can’t explain.

As the years have added to my knowledge of communing with the Almighty, I have become much more aware of how I enter my closet. Do I track into His Holy, Pure presence with the world’s mud? Is the sin of gossip trailing my steps? Murmuring and complaining are adept at attaching themselves to my tracks. Judging has so often tried to slip in with me unnoticed, but God always saw it as the dirt it really was.

I’m amazed and overwhelmed that confessional prayers are never refused by my Father. If I give Him my time and willingness, He can pinpoint sins that I might not have recognized in my life, and He quickly removes the world’s mud and filth when I ask for His cleansing. I’ve also learned that prayer closets are places of spiritual growth, counsel, comfort and miracles. 

One would think that such a place of spiritual renewal would have waiting lines to enter. Not so! The enemy has an endless list of ways to hinder or stop us from entrance to such a powerful place and\or to forfeit God’s blessings. I can name two of his most used:  1) Busyness and 2) Don’t Mind the Mud.

Camille Anding, The Daily Leader, P. O. Box 551, Brookhaven, MS 39602.