Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV)

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV)

⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I spent the bulk of last night and this morning cleaning my office — finally got around to sorting through my piles of magazines and setting aside a box and a half for donation/recycling (just have to figure out what to do with that). I also ended up throwing into recycling a box full of my kids’ artwork and worksheets and birthday cards, as if hanging onto those types of mementos isn’t enough clutter when it’s just for “one” (moi).

I still have a pretty long ways to go, further de-cluttering my bookshelves and desk and drawers so that one day they might “look” nice and aesthetically inspirational…as well as make room for new things to come!

There’s also my file cabinets, one big drawer still full of my papers and notes from my Regent days (2001-2004!)… not to mention toys and clothes… and our storage room (that is undoubtedly filled with items that should be recycled or discarded), which if tidied up could potentially add a “guest room” to our house…

In light of all that yet needs to be done, the de-cluttering I began in my office today seems like barely a drop of water in a big, BIG bucket…

Nevertheless, I am going to discipline my brain to focus today on today’s accomplishment as a good step in the right direction!

Ultimately, everything good (and sustainable) in my life has happened one step at a time…so I declare this as one of these types of steps in my life in preparation for 2016…

Cleaning — in particular de-cluttering — has always been a difficult task for me, partly because I never know if I’ll have the necessary discipline of heart to be productive enough at it, and also partly because the fact that it needs to be done (and the amount that needs to be done and that remains undone) is one of those areas of life that when I’m not in the right frame of mind can be particularly deflating, discouraging, even shameful.

“What’s wrong with me?” “Why am I being such a poor steward of my space…of my ‘things’?” “Was this really the best use of the resources I have been entrusted with?”  “Whatever happened to your intentions to finish that? Will you ever be the type of person that finishes what you start?” “Why is there so much?” “Why couldn’t you have given or thrown that away years ago?”

Today I am proud to say that while I am still aware of those kinds of thoughts being my typical thoughts, I am not letting them have weight today to discourage me from celebrating where I’m at in my de-cluttering journey.  (A big thanks to anyone and everyone who has been an encouragement to me in this!)

More than physical cleaning/de-cluttering, I am feeling so much more free than before as well about spiritual/emotional/relational* de-cluttering that I’ve come to terms with as a normal on-going part of life as well.  I’m pretty confident this applies not only to myself, but all human beings out there, who may or may not struggle with the physical counterpart as well?

Truly living…unafraid to venture out of carefully controlled comfort zones….means coming up against situations that will reveal ever-deeper areas of our own minds, hearts and souls still in need of growth, of pruning, of purifying, of refining, of expanding…

And while encountering situations that stretch me, that humble me, that correct me…inevitably can hurt so much because they put my shortcomings and/or vulnerabilities in front of my face, and sometimes even out on display (I’m not as perfect or perfectly unaffected and invulnerable as I wish!) — I am that much more certain now that these situations will always end up being that which I may one day proudly boast about as something–as one more step–God turned around to make me, mold me, and bless me ever-increasingly into the woman He intended for me to become.

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*When I say “de-cluttering” relationally, I don’t mean cutting and throwing out particular people from my life any more than I would suggest cutting out an emotion, for I believe all people are made in the image of God and cannot be ever regarded as expendable.  Rather, I mean it as spending time sorting through my various interactions and make peace in any areas where I haven’t yet made peace with God, with myself and/or with people in my life.  At the same time, I do believe that sometimes the best way to be interacting with certain relationships/circumstances is to enforce clear, healthier boundaries for a necessary time, possibly even one’s lifetime, i.e. in cases of ongoing abuse/offense.