Saturday evening I was in our storage room and looking for some of my artsy fartties stuff and couldn't find what is was looking for because it was not very well organized. There is a cabinet that we used to keep in our old house that we put towels, extra soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc. I put all of the stuff in our linen closet and decided to organize my artsy fartties stuff and store it it in the cabinet where I would be able to find the thinks I wanted and not go buy new just to come across what I already had a month later when I wasn't even looking for it. I emptied 2 storage containers and threw away a lot of things. This inspired me to start going through other boxes in the storage room.
Sunday the gospel reading was Matthew 6: 24-34. "No one can serve two masters. He will either hate on and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat (or drink), or about your body, what you will wear, Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look ate the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather noting into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. If God so clothed the grass of the fields which grows today and is thrown in the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say "What are we to eat?" or "What are we to wear? All these things the pagans seek. You heavenly seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; today is its own evil.
Knowing I do not worry about things like where I am going to get my food or clothes. I don't even worry about what the government is doing in Washington or if my kids are going to the top notch school. (Because the most important thing I want my kids to learn is love and kindness) I do worry about throwing something away that means something to me or someone else. Which is weird to me because my saved some stuff of mine and gave it to me years later and I didn't care if I kept it or not. I was prepared to throw a lot of things away which I did but there was something I came across that I didn't ever remember I kept. Some old English projects from High School. My favorite one was I had to make a journal of what my life would be like in 15 years (age 32). Put it this way Mike has 7 months to become a rancher on our ranch with horse in California, and choose which daughter he wants to get rid of so the our son and daughter can go swimming in our pool in the back yard. I couldn't throw that one away yet. I also found all of the letters that Mike wrote me throughout the years before and after we started dating and I can't throw those away. So I guess I am always going to have some pack rat in me but I am trying to get better. The next big step would be to get rid of the kids clothes that they have out grown.
Just a side not that I would like to point out. When we moved to our new house I had the feeling Mike was thinking way before that I couldn't get rid of anything. Well I tell you he is as big of a pack rat as I am. I love pins but when I organized all of them in our new house all of our pins had company his company logo on them. I sent them back to work with him. And he kept old water bills from when he was in college. Who the heck needs those after 12 years? The drivers licence was my favorite. I found it in a box along with one of mine. I cut my up and throw it away and asked him if he wanted me to cut his up and throw it away too. to quote him "heck n. . . . . oh yeah" and he did throw it away. We finally admitted that we both were pack rats and need to work on it. I know keeping things or throwing them away will not matter once I am in heaven but I am on earth now and have to do what keeps me happy while I am here. My kids will have to decided what to do with my stuff when I am gone.
Side note number 2. This goes along with my post about judging people. I decided to keep reading Matthew 7: 1-5. I wished I would have come across this for that post. You can look this one up on your own.
