Clutter

One of my big projects this year was organizing the clutter in our butler pantry/office. I've read a humorous article about clutter, illustrating how our messes tend to run our lives. We think we are mastering clutter, when really we are just making piles of it, or moving it from one place to another. Everyone has a certain amount of clutter, whether it is a junk room, a junk closet, or a junk drawer.

To overcome the clutter, I looked through each item, piece by piece. Then I decided whether to keep it, to throw it out, or to give it away. There were some forgotten items. I had no clue why I saved some of the odd things I found!

Our lives are also cluttered. Each of us must decide when and how to deal with our messes. Will we procrastinate and let the clutter accumulate, until it totally clouds our judgment, or will we deal with things as they crop up?

There are things in our lives we need to keep. These should be our priorities. Our love for God, family, and church should influence our choices, our attitudes, and our actions.

Other things in our lives are useless clutter. We get so busy we have no time for our real priorities. We fill our lives with good things, when God has better things designed for us. We sacrifice the essentials for everyday routine. Sometimes we get so caught up in the past, in who we were, that we leave no time to focus on who we are becoming.  Each of us still has opportunities in our future, and it is never too late to throw away the clutter and get to the important work at hand.

There is one last category. What we should give others. Each of us can give of ourselves to others around us. To our families we give our love, our time, and our attention. We can edify our friends and church family. We can tell unbelievers about the most essential element of life, that of trusting Jesus Christ as our Redeemer. Sadly, the clutter in life often overtakes our time and our conversations, and we don't leave room for our very purpose for life on earth.

Take a look at your life. Does your clutter fit into a junk drawer, a junk closet, or would it take an entire junk room? As you sort through each aspect of life, you can be victorious over even the most overwhelming piece of clutter.

Now where did I put that broom?

PRAYER: Father, help me have the same organizational skills in my life as You had when you created and ordered our world.  Show me what’s really important and help me not get bogged down by nonessentials.

“And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her,” Luke 10:41-42 KJV.

Today’s devotion is by Kathy Carlton Willis, wife to Russ, pastor’s wife to many, author, editor, publicist and speaker.  Kathy Carlton Willis Communications encompasses her many passions. Learn more at: http://kcwcomm.blogspot.com/ or http://www.kathycarltonwillis.com/.