Stuff

I’m on an anti-stuff rant today. Which is making me grumpy. Which will give me good prayer fodder in a bit. Yes, I know those are incomplete sentences. Ppbbbpphhhttt! :P

As an only child, someday, there’s going to be a whole lot more stuff to deal with. My mother-in-law was asking me about some of the stuff they have, that the daughters don’t want – what would I like to do with that stuff? Their stuff? I don’t even want all of MY/OUR stuff!

And…stuff takes maintenance! Dusting, storage, sorting, licenses and fees, electricity, repairs – it all creates monetary obligations. God has always given me what I need. How did I allow myself to get so chained to all this stuff? If we didn’t have all this stuff, I could give more of that money back to God for His use and glory.

There’s so much stuff, I hardly know where to begin to de-stuff. It’s not so hard with stuff that is obviously my stuff, but what about the shared stuff? The kids stuff? His stuff? I can’t just unilaterally declare the combined or not my stuff has got to go (even though a whole lot of it really, really does). While I can be prayerful and bout this de-stuffing process, I feel quite trapped by the stuff in which I have no say. It’s getting to the point where I look around my home and feel…hmmmm, I guess not-blessed…that’s about the best I can describe it.

Don’t get me wrong. I like my home very much. It’s warm, comfortable, and filled with a loving family. When I look at the all the stuff God has allowed us to accumulate, I see all the times we chose stuff over God. I see all the times we did what we wanted rather than asking and doing what He wanted. It’s like I can see the blight tarnishing the stuff – because it was not brought into our home with God’s greater glory in mind from the get-go. I’d like to keep the warmth, comfort, and love – because I really am quite not-rugged at heart. But the distracting, non-essential, take my mind away from God stuff – that could go. (That does not include the computer or facebook account!)

I do have to praise God for the Christmas He gave us. I told most of the family I wanted an anti-stuff Christmas. For the most part, everybody was very accommodating to that. Steve and I took the kids to a huge indoor water park, and the boys got things they really needed – rather than several more video games. We had nice family time with the in-laws, too. (I did miss my Calvary family some, but that’s because I like to talk Jesus who also like to talk Jesus! He’s a never-ending subject of fascination, for me.)

Besides prayer, I’m not really sure where I’m going to take this anti-stuff crusade. I’m also at a point where I want to change some of the decorating stuff in the kitchen and dining area to what I’ll call coffee house Christian. That means removing some of the stuff that were gifts from other people, which could end up hurting some feelings. So…what do I do with that stuff to preserve feelings, but also not have it around or ending up just storing it (and store it where, exactly? I’m out of space because of so much stuff!).

Yes, I’ll be taking all this stuff to Jesus in prayer. He did say to lay our burdens down before Him. I’m sure He has a way to organize my life to make it look like a “California Closet!”