September 3, 2025 – Pour It Out
It’s a little challenging to keep myself from reorganizing cabinets and making suggestions for things around my children’s homes. I’m an organizer at heart and it really helps me with my own stuff to help others with theirs. The one saving grace for Carrie is that I was here to help them when they moved in. I made a lot of their kitchen cabinet decisions, and they’ve pretty much stayed with that plan; so, there’s not much more to offer except for more shelves and bins (which I’ve ordered!) When I’m away from home like this, I try to gear up my mind for when I first walk in the house so I will see the piles and disarray that I didn’t address before I left. I see things in other peoples’ houses that could be put away/cleaned that I don’t see (or don’t want to see) in my house as I pass by them day to day, usually because I don’t know what to do with them. I’m a sentimental pack rat (and am married to one).
Yes, we are back to talking about clutter. Carrie has ADD too so she has some things out on counters and coffee tables etc, but she has much less stuff than I do (because she’s good at letting things go) so it’s much more peaceful, and inspiring, here than in my home. (In case you don’t have ADD or don’t have someone in your life with ADD, most people with ADD operate in the out-of-sight-out-of-mind-mode which is why things are left out on counters and other places much of the time). I just feel pressured to get as much done as possible before the shoulder surgery because I won’t be much good one-armed while I heal. This reality has been brought home while I watch Carrie whip around on her knee scooter (there was a warning about speed in the assembly instructions and I think it was for people like Carrie who often hurry wherever they go). The day before surgery she was getting up and down and moving around and the next day she was relying on others to help her (until she mastered the scooter) and began insisting that she could do things, which is good for her except for how heavy the cast is.
It really is a blessing that my children can and want to set up their homes and their lives without too much help from others – ME – but, still, I’m here if they need/want my help (and advice! Ha ha). God is here for us like that. He doesn’t force Himself on us (like some mothers do) but He’s there for us (like some mothers are) and sometimes lays things out for us to discover (like parents tend to do to help their children along). Because He is Who He is, we’d be wise to lean in for more of what He offers rather than leaning so much on our own understanding. (see Proverbs 3:5-6)
Utmost – “If you satisfy yourself with a blessing from God, it will corrupt you; you must sacrifice it, pour it out, do with it what common sense says is an absurd waste.” Do You mean like not just emptying my thoughts into my journal and instead writing a blog where I ramble too much and no one reads it? Chambers continues, “Until I do pour these things out before the Lord, they endanger those I love as well as myself because they will turn to lust….If you are always taking blessings to yourself and never learn to pour out anything unto the Lord, other people do not get their horizon enlarged through you.” Ahhhh, interesting….perhaps my devotion-book-small-group journaling was for me for a while and built me up to being ready for blogging…?
