By: Lyndsay Crews
I can remember telling myself, “I’m not going to have that many toys.” But with 6 grandparents loving on my 4 kids, I now have an entire room devoted to toys. We are very blessed, but sometimes after being in the toy room, I feel the need to get rid of some clutter. I put things in boxes and proudly take the boxes to my son’s closet. I feel pretty good about myself until I lay the current boxes on top of the previous boxes “I got rid of” from the last declutter session. Now my son’s closet is unusable, but at least my toy room looks better. The truth is that I’m not actually getting rid of anything; I’m just relocating my stuff to another place…and it shows.
Sometimes we get the nerve to declutter the junk in our lives. Maybe it’s busyness, a sin, a relationship, unresolved anger, etc. But instead we end up stuffing it and/or relocating it. For example, when I stuff the unresolved anger I have with my husband, it shows up in my parenting because I’m more irritable with my kids. When we push down, hide or don’t forgive “the stuff”, symptoms will show up in other areas of our lives.
“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” – Ephesians 4:31
The Bible doesn’t say hide the bitterness and anger; it says get rid of it. We are all a work in progress and we all have “stuff”. Pray and ask God to show you something to get rid of and ask Him to help you get rid of it.