Fall Fever

You know most people get "Spring Fever" and they want to clean things out. Not me, I get "Fall Fever." Maybe it is because I see the holidays looming ahead and I know that my kids will somehow accumulate new toys with many, many pieces and that I will have to find a place to put the new things. Or maybe it is because here in Florida, after a LONG, hot, and did I say LONG summer - at the first hint of a "chill" in the air (about 80 degrees constitutes a chill), I want to throw open the windows and smell the fresh air. Kind of like most people do in the spring. Anyway, whatever the reason, I de-cluttered our house about this time last year. I got rid of all the piles that seem to, well - pile up, on every flat surface in our house. Counter tops, the hearth, coffee tables, night stands...anywhere that it won't slide off there are magazines, that I don't want to throw away, but have already read, books that need to be shelved or taken back to the library (no wonder those fees keep getting higher), or pieces of computer paper that my kids seem to generate by the hundreds. All of that was gone this time last year and it felt so good. However, somehow, it is back. It has returned to haunt me and I can only take so much. I am not an organized person by nature, in fact, I am actually very unorganized. But, I am not a pack rat. I love the feeling of filling up a garbage bag and taking it to the street. I love a room without any "piles." I feel no compulsion to save things, except photos journals, and those really special art pieces. Toys, old clothing, things I haven't used it six months - toss it! So, I am tossing again!

This week, the room on the agenda was Lyndsey's. She is our ten year old and she is a "messer" we like to call her. She pilfers through things and loves to carry around an old purse full of her little playthings - little pet shops, polly pockets, miscellaneous little plastic animals or characters from just about anywhere. I can't bring myself to toss these simply because she actually plays with them. The problem is that somehow in her little purse there always seems to be a great assortment of gum wrappers, empty tic tac containers, and tags from clothing (who knows why, but I find too many of these for it not to be a pattern). So, for the past three days, after school is over we have been taking a couple of hours to dig through Lyndsey's things and weed out the trash and organize the toys and keepsakes into some kind of system. We finished today!! It is amazing the difference. All the clothes in her drawers and closet now actually fit and all the toys are in their proper place - for today.

The point I wanted to make in this post was that today as I am looking around her room, knowing that we are on the last leg, almost finished...the room looked worse than it has looked any day this week. We had dumped out a huge container of stuffed animals and there were little pieces of paper, beads, a fork (yes, from the kitchen), and various other little junky things littering the floor. It struck me that often when God is trying to "clean out" my life, He has to pull out all the junk that clutters things up to a point that I can't move any further towards where He wants me to go. Kind of like her room, it was at a point that we just ran out of room for junk and to make it better, we had to first make it worse - way worse! Sometimes, I feel like when God is stretching me and wanting to take me to a better place (a clean place), all the little junk that I didn't even know I had in there, the bad attitude, the complaining spirit, the fear - He reveals all that to me so that I can "toss it" and then He can show me the good stuff that is coming. So, today, I hope that you will allow God to help you clean out the junk and make way for the good stuff He wants to share with you.