Clutter Happens

Happy New Year! Ahhh, the start of a new year. Why is it on January 1st I end up cleaning out stuff all day long? I just got my shower and it's almost 2pm. I decided to clean out a closet today so I could store my Christmas decorations in the house instead of the garage attic. This way I might be able to get my tree up and decorated much earlier than I did this year...we'll see! As I was cleaning out, I was thinking about clutter. Why in the world do we get so much...and then end up taking it to Goodwill anyway? So I got to thinking of the sermon at our church this past weekend given by Rick Harwell, our worship pastor. It was titled Clutter Happens. He talked about how we not only end up with lots of clutter in our house, office, garage, etc. but also in our souls. Soul lint. Hmmm. Are you cluttered in your soul? Have you made any resolutions regarding uncluttering that area of your life? I get so caught up thinking about the weight I should lose, the exercise I should do, the closets I should clean I tend to forget about what I should resolve regarding my soul. How cluttered is it? How cluttered is yours? I received Beth Moore's bible study on David for Christmas from my steppie (term of endearment for step-daughter of which I have 3 beautiful ones!) I'm determined to spend the best part of my day (and no, that is not always the morning for me) spending time with my precious Jesus. I will begin 2008 working thru this 90 day study of David getting to know the heart of Jesus more intimately. I will try to unclutter my mind and soul with forgetting things from the past that hold me in chains...still. I will cling to God's promise in Phillippians 3:12-14 (NLT), "I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward the day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus is calling us up to heaven." You see, it looks as if Paul had soul lint, too. He just kept straining ahead and keeping at it. We must do the same. I must do the same. So, I shall begin today with my study. I will resolve to forget the things of the past that is just fuzzy old lint anyway, clinging to my soul, and I will just keep keepin' on...to the best of my ability. And I will get those closets cleaned out....someday. Happy New Year! Shari