Monday, June 2, 2008

Honesty and Growing Up

Decluttering has been such a challenge to me for years, I'm so amazed at all the insight I've been getting the past several months.

One recently, honesty. I've learned I have to be honest with myself. Am I REALLY going to use this? Do the kids really like this? Has it been that beneficial to me and my family sitting here in this box or cluttering our home? Could someone else put it to better use than we have, and really love and enjoy it? It used to be so much harder to get rid of things, rationalizing that there would come a time that the whatever would be important to us, maybe a NEED even, and knotting up inside over it all. It's wonderful feeling so much more free and have so much more faith in the future.

Speaking of the future, I am GROWING UP. This is actually very shocking to me. Yes I've got 5 children, but as a neighbor told me the other day, I'm just a kid at heart. No wonder I'm so stinkin' fun! But I'm passing on things that tie me to my past, recent or not-so-recent, and the future feels so much closer and more promising. As the scriptures tell us, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things" (1 Corinthians 13:11). To me "childish things" could be things that hold me back from my potential, or things I've already gotten my fill of. I've got plenty of things that were really meaningful to me at some point, we'll say CDs for example, but I've soaked everything I can out of them and they are just here hanging out. If I'm honest with myself I know they'll never be that important to me again, and I need to pass them on so they can be meaningful to someone else.

So there are two great decluttering mantras for today: Be honest with yourself, and put away childish things.

4 comments:

  1. Hello Mrs. Hall,

    I could not find an email on your blog but I wanted to contact you about a request I have. My name is James Ballou and I am an LDS author. Would you please email me at your convenience. Thank you.

    James Ballou
    author of Soul Survivor
    www.jamesballou.com
    jamesballou@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmm. I came over to offer my congratulations in your recent progress. I think I went through something similar in putting away childish things, but I wouldn't have written it so eloquently.

    But, once I got here I got a tad sidetracked with curiosity for the first comment you got. Are you going to check that out??

    Cindi

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  3. Hmmm... I am curious about the first comment also!

    Your post made me think that if I could/ would just get rid of all the stuff I am not using/ don't need I could easily fit into the two rooms we are in, then save the kitchen stuff. Then Mom could almost have her parking spot back.

    ReplyDelete
  4. that was such a good insight. thanks. it makes me think about all my junk. it's amazing how much we collect over such a short time.

    ReplyDelete