Blog – 8-31-16 Clutter
I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed right now with clutter. It’s everywhere. My closet is filled to overflowing, my drawers are stuffed to the brim, and every available inch in my storage areas are gobbled up by clutter.
My office is a mess, and I can’t find things when I need them. In the rest of my house things are picked up on the outside, but watch out when you open up a cupboard or closet! You might have something fall on you!
I have so many things I know I need to get rid of, but I don’t take the time to go through them. I always have an excuse or think, “I’ll get to that…someday.” Someday never seems to come!
Why do I have so much junk, I ask myself? Why don’t I just throw things away or make a neat little crate for everything and label it perfectly like my sister Kathy does? I’m jealous when I open up her storage room and see her beautiful crates, with labels of course, all lined up in a row so neatly, screaming at me, “Look at how beautiful we are! You need to be more organized.” So maybe she suffers a bit from OCD, but I wouldn’t mind just a tiny piece of that in my wildly creative brain!
As I was attempting to get through the piles of papers that have built up in my office today, I felt a bit overcome. How in the world did my office get like this? Why am I making piles everywhere? Why can’t I seem to make sense of this mess?
In the midst of organizing and sorting through papers, the nugget of truth hit me…this is exactly how our lives feel when we let things pile up. We may look okay on the outside, but when you open us up, watch out!
Hurts we refuse to let go of pile up. Forgiveness we fail to give others creates chaos in our hearts. Feelings we don’t want to deal with build up and get bigger with time. Life starts to feel overwhelming and we don’t know why.
Maybe it’s time to get through the mental clutter.
Where am I overextending myself?
Where have I failed to offer forgiveness?
What am I not letting go of?
Why am I holding on to that hurt?
Small things become big things when they pile up and clutter our minds with unhealthy thoughts and attitudes. When we avoid feelings as they arise and fail to deal with them once and for all, they start to cause disorder and confusion in our lives. We start to feel on edge.
Anne Frank wrote, “Feelings can’t be ignored, no matter how unjust or ungrateful they seem.”
We need to deal with our clutter or it’s going to rule us. Truth is, we really can’t ignore it.
After I got through the physical piles of paper in my office today, I realized how good it felt. Instead of that pit in my stomach when I looked around, I felt peaceful. I felt pride knowing that I got through those silly piles. I conquered them!
We need to do the same thing in our lives.
The Good News is God wants to help us declutter our lives. He’s wants to help us get rid of the mental junk that isn’t adding value to us but only covering up His light inside us. He wants us to have a huge garage sale and move the negativity out of the way!
If you’re feeling a sense of unease about your life, if you’re not sure why you feel anxious, if something just doesn’t feel right, I encourage you to take an honest look at yourself. Are there things you need to get rid of, unhealthy habits, hurts and hang-ups that are cluttering your life?
Take a deep breath, say a prayer and ask God to help clear the mental clutter, call your bestie if you need to, and get through the clutter, whether physical or mental, one pile at a time!
Hugs and love,
~Jill