From Clutter to Contentment

I don’t normally like putting pictures of myself up on my blog, but today, I decided to. Why? Because in this picture, I am content. It is one of the few pictures of myself that I actually like.

My friend Marti took this a couple of years ago when we got together for a visit, and she captured how I was truly feeling at that moment; I was 100% absolutely happy and content.

I was enjoying the warm sunny day. I was relaxed. Most of all, I was loving the fact that I finally had some time together with my dearest friend on this earth. Since we live in different states, this doesn’t happen often, and I was basking in every moment of it.

I haven’t been very content lately. It seems like the past few months have been very stressful, and instead of taking it to the Lord like I should have been doing, I was trying to handle things myself. You know how it goes … “Oh, I have to do this and this and this, and IF there is enough time left, I should really do this too!” In the end, you never get anything done, and then that leaves you feeling even more depleted and more depressed than when you first started.

I wasn’t making time to sit down and spend time in the Word like I should have been, and I wasn’t taking the time to just talk with God, except before I went to sleep at night. I felt terrible. Terrible about the way things were going in life, and terrible about neglecting the Lord.

I could see that discontent creeping up in my home life too. Clutter has been piling up around the house, and even though I try to make good faith efforts to go through and de-clutter, it never seemed to get done. Isn’t it funny how when we are not content in our personal lives, it moves over and starts to take over our home life too? Spiritual clutter = personal clutter = household clutter. At least it feels that way to me sometimes.

Over the past week, through different things that I have been reading, one verse kept popping up over and over, and I wondered if the Lord was trying to get my attention. It was Philippians 4:11 -

“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content”

I thought at first that it was just coincidence that I had seen that verse so many times in such a short period of time. I should know by now that these types of things are never coincidence.

After another night of not sleeping at all, I finally crawled out of bed at 5:30 this morning. I was tired of lying there with my mind going 100 miles per hour, and not being able to rest.

I got up, made a pot of coffee, and grabbed my devotional, my Bible, and my prayer journal. I decided to just flip willy-nilly in my devotional and see where it would land. It opened up at the beginning of a devotion called “From Clutter To Contentment”. Seriously. Sure enough, right there jumping out at me was Philippians 4:11 again. O.k. Lord … You have my attention!

I read through the devotional, and there were a lot of things that really spoke to me. I did the suggested scripture reading, and every single one of them pointed to learning to be content with where we are in life. Don’t worry about tomorrow, don’t worry about financial or material things, don’t worry about anything; the Lord has it taken care of. He always has.

Obviously, this is basic stuff. Being that it is so “basic” though, why do we seem to forget about it so often? Why do we let daily life rob us of our happiness, and take our time and our thoughts away from the Lord? I don’t know the answer to that, but I am making it my goal to keep it from happening again.

The devotion I read had seven basic questions that we need to ask ourselves, if we really want to eliminate the clutter from our lives and gain contentment. I thought they were great questions, so I am going to leave them here for you as well. If you want to de-clutter your life, take some time to think on them and apply them to your personal situation.

Who are you?
Where are you going?
What do you need to get there?
Does this activity, commitment, etc. make you money?
Does this save you money?
Does this save you time?
Does this improve the quality of your life?

Lastly, as you prepare to de-clutter your life, whether it be spiritual or physical, make a plan of action.

Start a journal and list what you plan to do. When you complete it, mark your completion date.
Thank God for your blessings of contentment.
List one are of your life in which you aren’t content. What can you do to make that a positive statement instead?

If you find you struggle in this area, let me know! I will be happy to pray for you, and encourage you as you make changes. I know I will be making plenty of my own. (:

I want to leave you with the Scripture verses from my devotional this morning: