Hoarders

Okay, so this is like the scariest show on television...even scarier than Bridezillas that used to give me serious panic attacks when we were planning our simple wedding. No joke, I would be in tears after 5 minutes--that's the most I could handle.

I watch this show and think of the half of our garage full of boxes and the boxes of books that fill a couple of closets and think, is this what we are turning into?

Now, I know that we aren't hoarders...it's more the fear of unpacking. On June 16 we will celebrate two years since our commissioning. I am in my third appointment and my husband is in his second. We have come to the point now where we feel okay in unpacking and truly feeling settled knowing that we're not going anywhere in the immediate future. There's a lot that we need to sort through and get organized--because we haven't has the chance to do so in our marriage yet. We have several doubles of things like books, videos, tools, etc that we really don't need...so in the end we'll end up with less to move in the future (which is not really a bad thing since we don't come close to the moving square footage/weight for a single officer and all we've added that would make any difference would be our deep freeze)

I am definitely a packrat--it's inherited, and I'm also very sentimental (For example, I have every card my husband has ever given me for any occasion), so it's hard to get rid of things--but I think I've gotten better over the years. My biggest thing is getting rid of clothes...I have clothes and uniforms ranging in a large variety of sizes because of losing and gaining weight. There's no happy medium in that, and I'm too cheap to buy new clothes to compensate for gains/losses. I don't like to let go of things (and ohhhhh that goes so much further than just stuff).

I try to remember that it is just "stuff"--like my husband says, you never see a U-Haul following a hearse. Those are not the important things in life. The important things in life are a good relationship with Christ, family, and serving others. To love one another (hmmm...where have we heard this before? Perhaps Matthew 22:36-40...just saying)

So...despite the fact that there's another TV show out there that strikes fear in my heart, I am reminded that there is more to me than the things that surround me--that the most excellent thing is the love that is in my life. For God, for others, and for(learning how to love) me.

A little random tonight, I know. This whole 3-day weekend thing has thrown me off--especially being at the thrift store for the most of the day as we held a big sale while our employees had the holiday off (Gotta take advantage of good store sales and no payroll overhead!)