November 29, 2016

Greetings My Friend, I am learning a lesson from the Holy Spirit. This lesson I have understood through the years in regards to "stuff" and being swamped in too much of it not in regards to the memories I have had with certain pieces of furniture. For sometime now I have felt overwhelmed with attempting to keep up with dusting. I have a love for nick knacks and the stories they have in my heart. I am particular to old things, to crosses and pieces with the birth of Jesus. I have something on every flat surface in the house. Some of the flat surfaces are crowed which means pulling each piece off, dusting it and then putting it back has now become a major chore, I have finally realized my memories are starting to own me instead of me owning them. Another problem with dusting is finding a way to get rid of the dust without over waxing the furniture. It came to me, more likely from the Holy Spirit to use a bowl of water and Castile soap which has olive oil in it. The soap is not as rough on my hands as other soaps and the oil nourishes the wood. I have spent several days going from room to room and part of the process has been to get rid of some of my treasures. I have filled up a couple of laundry baskets of things so I am proud of my work too. I will donate most of these treasures to Brother Wolf, an animal rescue thrift store in our town. Last night as I was working on our sitting room it came to me again I think I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to say good bye to some pieces of furniture I have. This endeavor was a bit harder to let go of but I did and I am happy with how much less crowded the room looks. Junior and I are thinking about getting a recliner love seat for the sitting area so I set the 2 recliners we now have on the wall under the mirror. I took out Grandma Chearheart's old shelf unit, the end table with snack tables underneath the table and placed the snack tables beside the 2 chairs. I took the glider out of the corner, put my sewing machine in that corner with a little person (like my size) rocking chair in front of it. The whole room feels good and looks a lot better. It was hard to let the shelf unit and the end table go. Grandma Chearheart was my encouragement as a youngster and a young wife. She knew when I was getting severely depressed and told me to stop thinking those thoughts. I loved her glistening eyes whenever I came in the door, someone loved me for me so letting go of this reminder of her was hard. God started a conversation with me around this time as I was feeling lost without these old reminders. He pointed me to look at Aunt Rosemary, the hoarder in our family and how lost she was when we asked her if we could get rid of an old raggedy piece of clothing. He showed me Mom and Dad's hoarding where it was hard to find a path in the basement, the smell of the old shag rug as I slept on it the night Dad died and brought to mind Junior's willingness to move piles of stuff so he could clean the floor and then move the same pile back to the same spot. The last memory struck me the hardest with the collecting of nic knacks and memory pieces that I had in my life. God next brought to mind the sense of loss I feel with family and seemed to ask me "who was my family?" My heart replied, "The family of God". As I thought this thought I understood it was time to fully accept the family of God as my family, that is where I feel wanted, valued and useful. The past is gone, it was what it was but it is time for me to live in the present, in the family of God celebrating what I do have. I also sensed that God was not telling me that I needed to live with totally modern things but to be blend my life into His. I have a love for variety, a tendency towards a time gone by blended with the comforts of today. I felt God was saying that style was okay but don't hang onto things. There is a season for everything and the season of remembering another life is now over with. At the end of my conversation I felt I was good with letting Grandma Chearheart rest in peace. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet