 |
| Photo courtesy of Unclutterer.com |
TODAY THE WORD is KEEPERS. We hear this term a lot in reference to great husbands, wives, and for the single crowd, boyfriends and girlfriends who exemplify “keepers” for the future. That however is not where my train of thought is going with “keepers”. The other day it occurred to me to find some time to go through the attic in our house and see what we have decided were apparently keepers. Keepers are those items we acquire throughout our lives; as children; as adults; and sometimes keepers come from our parents when they depart. Life has a way of providing us with a lot of “keepers” or more accurately, keepsakes. When I was thinking about taking the time, it hit me how long we have been in this home, numerous years, and I have not needed any of those keepsakes since I haven’t been up in the attic since we have moved here. At Christmas, I have assisted Greg with our Christmas tree and ornaments, taking them down and either Cory or Chris usually help him put them up. So the thought came to my mind; why do we keep keepers? What makes us become keeper hoarders in a symbolic way? Why do we put so much value on trinkets? Childhood stuffed animals, school awards, trophies, scrapbooks, etc. are taking up space in attics, closets, drawers and how often do we pull them out and look at them only to put them back. I began to have a theory of why we do this. There are only a few of us who can depart with our past life (lives) and who can dispose of those links to our former or childhood life. We hang on to those “keepers” because we fear the unknown or the unforeseen future. We want to cling to unnecessary or outdated reminders of habits, lifestyles, or jobs. With this acknowledgment of why, I began to think of this same theory in our human lifestyle. I had an attic of bad habits, over indulging and over spending in purchases, living for the moment, and not knowing what the future would hold. My storehouse was overfilling with materialistic things or “keepers”. Some of those things were not important or needed in my life, but I hung on to them. Now for the deeper thought…..When it was time to “clean my spiritual house” I had to go through my storehouse of undesirable “keepers” and do away with the things in my life which needed to be “thrown out”. Once this soul housekeeping was completed and a little side note, it didn’t happen over night. I had the services of the most immaculate soul cleaner who kept working with me with grace and forgiveness when I would want to keep an undesirable thing or person in my life. Everyday, I still do a morning check up on my soul. I will get to the attic and go through it soon; but the best cleaning was when I gave in and allowed God to help me clean my life. A clean house is a good thing; a clean soul is a great and godly thing!
DAILY FEATURED BIBLE VERSE:
Luke 11:25
And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order.
(c) copyright 2013 Arline Lott Miller. The material here copyrighted, use only by permission.
