Piles of junk

So...I half way cleared out some of the junk we have managed to accumulate since school started one day last week. Because I knew I had reworked a few areas, I immediately noticed when there was a random pile of papers about an inch thick on MY black table. I stress the MY because I have a table that I keep in the living room with a basket of bills, my sunglasses, phone, and etc. on it. When I went over to pick up the stack of papers, I noticed another pile just like it over on another piece of furniture which had previously been cleared off and dusted as well.

I glanced a bit further and was even more surprised that Blaise had her little table, she keeps one of the front windows, really tidied up. I guess I had inspired her. She had an old keyboard that was just in position and a few old phones laid perfectly straight like they were arranged in an office. Her purses and Ziploc baggies full of fake nails were even stashed in a basket looking all proper and organized. What was missing from her area was the pile of recycled papers that we have passed down to her to motivate her in her studies. She had moved them onto my table. Not only did she move the stack, she seemed to have divided it in two and tried to really hide it by putting the two stacks in two different spots in the living room.

I immediately laughed because as all of my children get older they seem to gain wisdom and ways to accomplish and get done what they want. My favorite saying right now is...."I don't do things for kids that kids can do for themselves." Just while typing this, I have been asked to get underwear for Brazos and get clothes for Bosque. I responded to Bosque with my quote already mentioned and he said "I know...you have been saying that like a thousand times." Oh, they are wise.

When Blaise moved her pile of junk I thought about the piles of JUNK in my life that I just move around from place and place and never really deal with...thinking that I am solving something by putting things off or just keeping myself busy enough that time will help things pass. These piles of junk that we move, cover up, restructure, or even redecorate can be old habits that are no good, unforgivness, jealousy, insecurities, the urge to compare ourselves and our CHILDREN to others, or bitterness and resentment that we thought we had let go.

The piles just grow the longer we let them go unresolved. We sometimes need to take a honest look at life and get to the root of the problem. The root of the problem is usually that we were hurt and never really dealt with the feelings. We just act like we can move on and often we can't at all.

I was really struck by something Beth Moore wrote in "When Godly People Do Ungodly Things." She wrote "Dear friend, is there an area of your life still a weakness? Perhaps you have already confessed it and asked God to forgive you, but you have never asked God to heal you completely, redeem your past, restore your life, sanctify you entirely, and help you to forgive your pasts?"

The reason the idea of healing really caught my attention is because it was a friend of mine in Sunday School who read that out loud and I have seen it in her life! She has not only been seeking the Lord to help her with old wounds, but she has dealt with the grief, and asked the Lord to HEAL her. AND...He has! It is an amazing thing to see. Is she problem free now? No, not at all, but that pile of junk that she moved from place to place and avoided since she was a young girl has been dealt with.

I recently had a conversation too with a husband who reached out to his in-laws and there has been a major healing for both he and his wife. It came just in time too because they have recently needed each other. It is like again...the pile of junk that had just been moving from place to place over the years and avoided has come to a point of healing.

I am so thankful that I can see these little things in life and relate them to what the Lord shows me is going on all around us. I am also amazed that I see healing and so many redeemed lives. The piles of junk can get smaller in our lives. It is a great feeling to look around and see that what used to be a weakness can become a strength when the Lord is involved. Now...that is getting rid of some junk!