Discard It

This week, some comments from friends moved me into major declutter mode. I tossed out yards and yards of fabrics; the kind I knew I’d never use. Then I went at my sewing notions, quilting cottons and craft supplies. I emptied a dresser of ‘maybe I will wear that again’ outdated clothing. I threw out raggedy towels and empty coffee tins. I tossed clothes that were too big and clothes that were too small. I even tossed the hundreds of sympathy cards from Ron’s funeral.
While I was at it, I added a couple of bad habits to my discards.

Before you write me nasty letters about saving the environment, I want you to know that when I say I ‘tossed or threw out’, I mean I gave everything away to places and people who will use it. Thrift shops, church quilting groups, and children’s play groups benefited greatly from my excessive muchness.

I did discard some stuff for real. Outdated foods from the pantry were no good to me or anyone else. It’s a shame I didn’t keep better track of the dates. Now no one can use that stuff but the rats at the dump.

What are you clinging to? Is it really something you love or do you just love the memories attached? Is your real life overtaken by the stuff of the past? What bad habits can you add to your pile of visible discards?

Maybe my friends’ comments will stir you to action as well.

Friend # 1 – I don’t need stuff to remind me of my loved ones.
Friend # 2 – I realized that part of my life was over.
Friend # 3 – If anything happens to me, my family will toss everything, so I beat them to it.

And God’s word might send you in the right direction too.

God, my friend # 4, said – let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary
weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us. (From Hebrews 12:1, AMP)

Prayer – Lord, forgive us for hanging onto stuff, instead of you. For Christ who never lets go. Amen