I’ve managed to let life get in the way of managing our household and keeping our home in order lately. Do you ever find yourself in that same predicament? Sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day to get everything done. When there is time, you are exhausted and chores get put on the back burner.
A pile of clean clothes that need to be folded and put away still rest on the chair beside the bed. The high heels worn to work on Monday are still in the floor on Friday and yesterday’s breakfast dishes are still in the sink. The refrigerator and freezer haven’t been cleaned out in weeks.
I can relate to these things and I finally decided I’d tackle some of my “To-Do-List” today!
I decided to start with the kitchen. Several bottles of salad dressing and condiments found inside the refrigerator door were out of date, most of the veggies in the crisper had seen a better day too. They were planned for a nutritious evening meal but were passed over when I was too tired to cook and dinner ended up coming home in a paper sack! And don’t get me started on the canned goods stockpiled in the cupboard (some with expiration dates from 2010) were still waiting to be chosen for the day’s menu. Yuk!
All of these food items were bought with good intentions to fix healthy meals but were wasted!
I am ashamed and admonish myself as I haul the garbage outside to the curb. I vow to do better when The Lord rebukes me too as He brings to mind the verse in John 6:12 (NIV) When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.”
Through this entire cleaning project today, The Lord has reminded me too that while we don’t want to be wasteful, sometimes the culling process is needed to toss away the junk and to select only what is best for our lives.
We need to cull out the hurtful comments that were spoken to us in anger and painful things we’ve said to others. We need to clean out the junk of past day’s guilt and shame and throw it in the garbage bin! If we wouldn’t eat items with an expiration date gone by, then let’s not feed our brain on tired, worn out hurts or feed our heart on guilt and shame from the past. That junk has expired…and it’s OK to Toss it!