Decluttering

My husband and three boys left early this morning for a church family ski trip.  They look forward to this trip every year and it's good for them to get to go together with "just the guys".  This year I kind of wanted to go, just because I knew I would miss them and love seeing the snow, but wouldn't allow myself to even think much about it.  Why?  Because our house needs me here!

While the family is gone, there isn't a schedule I have to keep.  I don't need to cook.  I don't have to go anywhere (except for a few basketball games that are in town that I'll go to because I don't want to miss them).  No one is counting on me to do anything, except for myself!

From Christmas until now has been crazy.  With basketball, helping move our daughter to Florida, beginning a new ladies' Bible class study, working on our church ladies' event coming up, and trying to keep things going in the house, the house is beyond neglected!  I just got the final Christmas totes all packed up yesterday and finally found the Valentine's tote (labeled as Christmas on one side, but Valentine's on top, causing the problem of not being able to find it for days) yesterday - just a few days before the holiday!  Ha ha!  Oh well....we're having two events here after the 14th, so it works out perfectly.  And on top of that, our oldest son's putting green he  built a few years ago in his room is covered with lots of stuff that's not his - it's mine! He couldn't putt on it if he wanted to!!  It's time to DECLUTTER beginning NOW!!  As soon as I click PUBLISH on this post!

Decluttering feels good, doesn't it?  It's a needful thing to do from time to time, isn't it?  Our homes, cars, offices, spare rooms - all can become cluttered if we're not careful.  And when there's too much clutter around, it's hard to breathe! It's as if we're claustrophobic with all of that junk around. And we have to declutter.

What about in your spiritual life? Do you ever need to declutter?  Get rid of the junk?  Yes, from time to time we also should declutter our spiritual lives!  We may need to declutter bad habits, unloving and impatient attitudes, greed, unforgiveness, jealousy, envy, pride.....all of these things clutter our lives and keep us from focusing on the blessings that God has given us. They also keep us from shining brightly for Jesus.

And just like it's bad to hoard up the junk in our homes, it's even worse when we hoard up that "junk" in our spiritual lives.  It will weigh us down and keep us from being free from the tangles web of sin.

So declutter your spiritual life!  Get busy today!  You'll be free again!

Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the Lord. Lamentations 3:40

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you - unless indeed you fail the test? 2 Corinthians 13:5

I considered my ways and turned my feet to Your testimonies. Psalm 1119:59