Wow, all kinds of things are clicking this morning! I’ve been praying about some things I and my
family has been struggling with for a while now, and I think this morning God
has broken through and revealed some clarity for me. I will share some…
Recently, we had a garage sale. I tend to wrestle with a couple of things
when I have a garage sale: 1. I don’t typically
pull out all my clothing, and I have a lot, even if it doesn’t fit. Instead I keep those items in my closet and
wish, hope and pray for the day I’ll fit in them again. 2.
When the sale is over, I don’t usually donate the remaining items. You see, we are not in a good financial
situation, so I have a hard time giving away perfectly good items that may
generate some $ at our next yard sale.
Well, let me tell you what actually happens while I hang onto this stuff: 1. My closet is stuffed with clothes I can’t
wear and my garage is cluttered with boxes and items from garage sales past. 2. I beat myself up every time I get dressed
because I don’t fit in all those clothes.
I feel guilty, angry, disgusted, (fill in the blank) for what I look
like and that all those clothes are sitting there unused. I am resentful toward every item I do wear,
because it’s not the size I have at the back of the closet. And let me tell you, most of my closet doesn’t
fit. We’re talking 70-80% of my closet
is items 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 sizes too small!
3. We have actually forgotten entire boxes of clothing and other items
in the garage when we have set up for the next 2 or 3 garage sales. In fact, I’d say we forget about them almost
everytime – so we don’t sell them next time and they just keep accumulating in
my garage! 4. I think I’m teaching my
kids some really bad habits. And I’m
making my own situation pretty overwhelming.
Here’s what God asked me to do this time: 1. Pull
it all out. Take everything (EVERYTHING)
out that doesn’t fit or is otherwise not wearable. (I did, and very little actually sold. Which I actually started to take as a sign
that maybe I should put them back in my closet.) 2.
Donate EVERYTHING that didn’t sale to some charitable organization.
Wait, what?
So, what does this mean?? Does
this mean I should just give up on ever being a single-digit size again? Does this mean that whatever profit those
items were worth, I should just let it go?
I’ve really been stressing over all of this for nearly a week. But then something happened. I realized that God asked me to do these
things and I just have to trust Him.
Literally, He’s just asking me to take off my old self and discard
it. And I know what that means – it means
I get a new self. I don’t know if she’ll
be a size 4 or if she’ll be able to pay all of her bills on time, but I know
she’s who God wants me to be and that’s good enough for me. I know He has plans for good and not to
injure or harm me. So I can trust Him in
this, joyfully, hopefully and entirely.
Here goes nothing – here goes everything!
