Worth Saving?

“So where is the end piece to the valance?” During construction the workers had taken down the blinds for our sliding door and put everything in the garage. Weeks later it was time to reinstall them, and one part was missing. Unfortunately sometime during those weeks, my younger son got the “neatness bug” and cleaned up in the garage… and threw out what he thought was junk. For the next twelve years my eye would travel to that end of the blinds that wasn’t quite right… until we finally replaced the whole thing.

I sometimes am the one who feels the need to sort and toss. My husband has forbidden me to touch his top drawer for fear I won’t see the importance of all the treasures in it. When our daughter was a little girl, I would wait until she left for school to clear out the random clutter for the garbage collectors to haul away. If I did it while she was around, she would be sure to retrieve some or most of her “precious collection” from the trash.

I still am putting off sorting through the file cabinets and boxes in the garage that have papers and cards from our life over these past seventy plus years. Much of it has no meaning for anyone else, and I wonder just who I’m saving it for. So many of the brochures for national parks and historical locations can be found on the internet. But they don’t have the circles on them that show the sites we especially enjoyed.

Even worse are those random keys, screws, and bolts in drawers throughout the house and garage. I’m sure that, just like the end piece of the valance, one of them will be vital to my life as soon as I toss it. Probably not. But I still keep them.

GOOD THINGS TO SAVE

I enjoy the challenge of “saving up” for something. When we were first married we saved all of our loose change in a huge jar for extra treats on our vacations. My summer jobs in high school and college earned money for my first stereo. I didn’t have enough saved up, though, for that 8-track player. Probably a good thing!

I think the Lord likes to see me being frugal, looking forward to a purchase or saving for that “rainy day” that always threatens to cloud my future. He also knows items that produce fond memories are good things to reflect on and even keep.

GET RID OF THIS! 

My Lord Jesus draws the line, though, when it comes to other things I’m tempted to save up… my sadness… my anger… my guilt. They are never going to be something I’ll need in the future. What use could they ever be? And who am I saving them for? Someone else? Me?

Unfortunately, some of those random "bolts and screws and keys" of sorrow, rage, and shame keep rolling around in the drawers of my mind.

So the Lord continues to pull them out of my life for me. And He helps me sort through all of those other useless papers and memories too. He tells this child of His that He knows it’s time to let them go out with the garbage.

And NO… I’m not supposed to go back and dig through the trash!

Leaving my guilt at the cross,

Christine