Some people have a junk drawer, but I confess I have a room dedicated to random stuff I keep.
It is full of great memories, seasonal items, things the kids have outgrown, and things that I’ve grown out of (u-humm).
Maybe you have one too — a room you’re constantly apologizing for if anyone happens to enter said room.
Perhaps it’s full of things you need to do but you don’t want anyone to see because it’s embarrassing (like my Mt. Kilimanjaro laundry pile). Maybe it’s just random things. Those stacks of things that never make it to the trash can (all those hole-filled socks). Junk mail that needs to be shredded. Hundreds of Walmart shopping bags you keep forgetting to take back to the store.
I have to say 2020 for me was the Year of the Great Cleanout. When the family was stuck inside, we had to find a way to make more space. But just a few months into 2021, that room started to fill up with more stuff.
It’s a never-ending battle. I empty the junk room, and more stuff keeps walking into that space. Sometimes I feel like renting a backhoe and dumping the whole mess. I would start with that laundry pile…
I guess that is one impulsive instinct that I have to quell. If I don’t give myself time to sort through the junk room, I’m going to throw out the good with the bad. The one feeling that can take control of the situation is the feeling of being OVERWHELMED.
Is God judging us based on the messy? No! He created us out of dirt. All dirt isn’t necessarily sinful; it’s just dirty. I’m so glad that God doesn’t judge us based on the messy, He wants us less weighed down, less overwhelmed.
He wants to help us deal with those messy spaces in our lives. With His help, we need to give them mindful attention. In this season, what is one thing you know you need to pull from your “junk” room?
As you pull it from that room, you have to ask yourself some important questions:
- Is this thing I’m holding onto serving any purpose where it is?
- Why have I hidden it away?
- Is it keeping me from moving forward in my life? • Could I use it to move forward in a stuck area of my life?
- Could I repurpose it?
- If I can’t use it, would it possibly be valuable to someone else?
- Do I need to throw it out because it doesn’t serve myself or others?
Prayer is a great thing, but one of the greatest gifts that I gave to myself and my family on my journey to less overwhelmed personally is a trusted professional counselor. She helps me honestly evaluate all the areas of my life where I had things piled up. She has talked me through some of the things I had in that room.
She was my impartial voice of reason, giving me direction and helping me talk through those items one by one instead of saying, “You’re a messy person who needs a backhoe”
She made me realize that some things that I had been storing were actually making me physically and emotionally sick.
But the first thing in getting that impartial voice of reason into my messy “junk room” both literally as well as mentally is allowing someone else into it. I pray you are able to end this season with less weight and more growth.
May you prayerfully consider what God may be asking you to repurpose, reactivate, and reorganize — and what He may want you to relinquish to someone else or take to the rubbish pile.
