What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:26
I was reading a devotional about prayer, and the balance it gives in our lives. The application was intriguing to me.. Prayer helps us find the balance in so many things, but I had never taken this thought captive... "Prayer helps us find the balance between laziness and obsession..." Both are as wrong as the other. We have to have a strong prayer life to balance every area our lives the way God wants us too... It is just as wrong to obsess over having everything perfect as it is to do nothing to keep order in our lives. " Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth." Proverbs 10:4, I need to stay away from having idle hands but not become so obsessive about it that I lose my focus on what is important. For years, God has been sifting through all of faults but none have come up as consistently as my inability to stay organized. I've come a long way, but still have sooo far to go. Clutter takes up space in every area of my life, my home, my car, my thoughts, my actions but most specifically my home. I have the best of intentions but never seem to be able to follow through to get where I want to be. Today I realized, that until I lean on God specifically in this area of my life, I will never overcome my weakness. I lean on him for all the big stuff, my relationship w/ Him, my children, my family, my relationships, etc. but I don't ask Him often enough for the strength to follow through w/ my intentions when it comes to living in order in my home.
So you ask, where do I start... I prayerfully made a list of "projects" last week that need to be completed to get where I want to be (I guess this was God's way of showing me yet again that this subject was about to come up). I will be continually asking God to help me get through the entire list as swiftly as possible and to let my children see that we need to depend on Him for all sorts of things, not just the deeply spiritual stuff. He gave me a beautiful home to live in and has provided for us so much in the last couple of years, that the least I can do is be obedient to what He is, and has been, asking me to do in return. The list is two entire pages long so this is going to take some time. I realize that in order to be completely organized I need to decrease the "stuff" in my home by about 2/3... This is where it gets hard for me, I am so afraid of throwing away, selling, or donating something that I "might" need "someday" that I keep way too much stuff. But God's word says "Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!" Luke 12:24 so there is no reason to keep all of the random things I have! Even my kids have begun adopting this mentality of having to keep every little thing they own. We cleaned Mickenna's room last night and I was so proud of her, she has filled up two white garbage bags of yard sale items and threw a lot of older toys away as well. I made the comment last night that she must be growing up because I'd never seen her so willing to let go of things in the past. I guess in reality God used her last night to show me what He has been trying to say all along.
We grow up spiritually and as we do, God asks us to sift through different areas and behaviors in our lives. Some are easy to give up, so more difficult. To some people, their biggest hurdle might be to let go of being overly organized, mine definitely is not. God wants us all to have balance in our lives where we are not consumed by the clutter or the obsessive behavior involved in some being the complete opposite. Someone said to me that they couldn't imagine why everyone wasn't as neat and organized as they were, that it seemed strange to them that not everyone has the same obsession with it. I wish I was more that way, but the "balance" is somewhere in between- have the drive to get there and stay there, but not be consumed by the act of it, keeping the focus on God instead of the behaviors. It seems to me that the perfect balance would be to blend our personalities and learn from one another so that we both find the balance and not go back to where we were. So here I am, trying to get out of my comfort zone, bite the bullet, so to speak...
"You will remain the same until the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of change." Linda Toupin. Staying the same might cost me too much, I want to be where God wants me, doing the things he chooses for me... So I'm changing...constantly.... Even when it's hard, I don't want to miss out on an opportunity God has for me because I didn't try because it could be hard!!! God wants to bless us, and when we are obedient to Him, the blessings are more abundant!
