HOARDERS

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I have a problem - well probably more than one. I am a hoarder.
I grew up relatively poor. Not the starving dirt floor poor. The kind that only owns two sets of school clothes, that never went on any school trips, that couldn't get a school jacket or a year book.


Now I keep EVERYTHING. I still have my first stuffed animal and doll. I KNOW the dog chewed the crotch out of the underwear but they are still usable - sort of.


My mother died and I am having a tough time getting rid of her things. I had to tell myself that her dentures were just pieces of plastic and not part of her. My husband had to pry my hands off her glasses to drop them in the donation bin at the Lions Club.


Everything I touch contains a memory: The popcorn pan, the book we read together each Christmas, her recipe collection, her handwriting on old grocery lists (handwriting I learned to forge at an early age for skipping school), her white sweater, her fishing hat...I can barely walk through the house.


My antique shop also went our of business and guess where the merchandise is stored? Yep. Boxes to the ceiling.


I wonder what Jesus might say if he came to visit and couldn't get to the guest room bed due to all the boxes. Are those possessions taking up room in my heart that should be reserved for Him? Is compulsive hoarding idolatry - the worship of things?


Matthew 6:19-21  Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.


I am continually working and studying to allow the Holy Spirit to lead me. My huge collections will be sold at a series of auctions to raise money for my disabled brothers rent. Hopefully in six months I will be able to walk through my house and find what I need.


Are you worshipping something other than God?


Here are just a few more words on putting things before God.


Psalm 135:15  The idols of the nations are silver and gold made by human hands.


Exodus 20:3  You shall have no other gods before Me.


I am working towards cleaning out my house and making room. That part isn't so hard. The hard part is the psychological letting go, to have more room for the Holy Spirit in my life.


My prayers are with so many of you, Dawn, in the illness of your mother, Carl with a spot on his pancreas, John, recovering from cancer. Delores O. and Rod S. both battling still. I ask that you pray for me also as we make this wonderful journey.