No Need to be a Hoarder!

Hello, Lovely People!

Spring is coming! The days are getting longer and the birds are switching over to their spring songs. Have you noticed?

It is almost time to start spring cleaning!

Ok, maybe not. Do people still spring clean?

Growing up, our house got a THOROUGH cleaning whenever the Rose Hill Household Science Club members came to call. It was a few days of pure torture for my sisters and mom, but the house sparkled and there was no dirt left ANYWHERE. And bonus…..gobs of delicious food leftover for days!

One thing I know for sure, my own house could use a good going over from top to bottom.

Did you “Konmari” after Christmas? Did you get rid of everything that didn’t spark JOY? Since I have followed the Flylady method off and on for years, I have had periods of pitching and hauling off stuff.

Followed by periods of hauling more in.

Minimalism may be “in” but I have a lot of trouble adhering to it.

Target and TJ Maxx whisper my name and I go running. As a matter of fact, I have a longing right now to visit both stores. “Longing” may seem too strong a word, but when you live an hour and 15 minutes from the closest Target and 50 minutes from TJ Maxx, it isn’t easy to shop and the absence makes my heart grow fonder. I long.

Dollar General just doesn’t have the same appeal, but I am sure thankful that we have one in our town.

Abundance

Yesterday, I heard geese honking, so I went to check it out. There were literally thousands of geese flying by our house, making a tremendous racket. Mesmerized, I watched for quite a while and they just didn’t stop. White snow geese kept coming and coming and coming for as far as the eye could see! It was amazing!

They landed in a field not far from us, so on our way to church we drove as close to it as we could, stopped the car, rolled down the windows and just listened. Their honking was a ROAR!

It got me thinking about the abundance of God, so I looked up some facts….

There are…..

• 91,000 different species of insects
• 37.2 trillion cells in our body
• 7,500 varieties of apples grown in the world
• approximately 400,000 types of flowering plant species
• 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way alone

God is NOT Stingy!!! He is the God of abundance!

Pick Your Story…..

So…. Who will we follow closely today?

The God of all goodness, love and mercy?

Or…..the father of lies, death and destruction?

How will we treat others today? How will we treat ourselves?

Don’t Be a Hoarder…

God is so very generous. The question is, “Are we?”

What am I hoarding? How am I living tight fisted and small? All of us have been hurt, and perhaps our deepest wounds have even come from our brothers and sisters in Christ or the people who were supposed to love us most. The tendency and natural inclination is for every hurt and wound to cause a layer of protection to form over our hearts. If we aren’t careful, the layers get so deep that we no longer let anyone truly KNOW US.

Truthfully, “we” might not even know ourselves.

What a shame! The world needs you in it, bringing your gifts and talents to the table. Please don’t hoard YOURSELF as a manner of self protection. Don’t let a neighbor crab pull you back into the basket.

RUN TO FREEDOM, FRIEND!!!!

I’m learning that we are already living in the kingdom of God, a kingdom with a loving FATHER where we are all equal…equally blessed, equally loved, equally talented. It may look different for each of us and we may not notice, but God is blessing and loving us.

And you ARE talented and gifted….even if you deny it.

Our kingdom is abundant with the things that matter….all gifts of Holy Spirit.

Love.

Joy.

Peace.

Patience.

Kindness.

Gentleness.

Faithfulness.

Self-control.

I am continually delighted by the generosity of God. He created a beautiful planet for us to live on, surrounded us with beauty, knit us together, loves us indescribably, sent his Son to die for us, raised him up and put him to work creating a place for us to spend eternity.

Who in the world would run away from that? Not me, and I pray not you!

Let’s talk about it….