Everyone has baggage.
When I was a child my parents took our family to Disneyland and Hawaii over a Christmas vacation. (Apparently flight travel for a family of 7 was a lot cheaper in the 80's.) As I was merely 8, and my sister Angel just 6, another member of the family packed our suitcases for us. Our family spent a few days in California, with Angel and I wearing outfits retrieved from just one of our two shared suitcases. By the time we arrived in Hawaii our dirty laundry was piling up, so my mom instructed one of my older sisters to retrieve some fresh clothes for Angel and me from the suitcase we had yet to open. Much to my older sister's surprise, she opened the second suitcase and found nothing but doll clothes!
You see, in our shared bedroom at home, Angel and I had several baby dolls and scores of doll clothes; my mom used a spare suitcase to store all our doll clothes in one place. Apparently in the chaos of packing the entire family for our vacation someone assumed the doll clothes suitcase contained clothes for Angel and me. I still laugh when I think of us toting an extra suitcase from Alaska to California, to Hawaii, and then back to Alaska for no reason at all.
Nowadays that second suitcase would have cost us $25 for each leg of the trip. (sigh) Aside from the obscenely big hair, the 80's really were a simpler time.
I have baggage.
A year and a half ago my sister Jaimee sent me a copy of
this book by Anne Ortlund. I'm sorry to say it has taken me that long to finally read through it - I blame a tough pregnancy and adjusting to life with three kiddos.
In her book Anne details disciplines for godly women: making daily time with God a priority, consistently setting monthly/yearly/lifelong goals to work toward, and organizing one's life in order to best chase those goals. One key principle really stood out for me:
Eliminate and Concentrate.
Eliminate and Concentrate.
As Anne says: "
You want to manage your time? You eliminate clutter and concentrate on your goals."
The reason Anne's statement hit so close to home for me (quite literally) is because our home is a great source of stress for me right now. We have stuff
everywhere. Too much stuff. So much stuff that when I seek out moments of peace and relaxation in my own home I find instead that I am blocked at every turn by another stack of mail in the kitchen, another mess of toys in the bathtub, paperwork on the desk that needs filing, piles of outgrown clothes in the closet that need to be purged or donated, stacks of magazines I love but never have a chance to read, another mess of toys on the dining room floor...
Okay yes, kids should be allowed to have toys and make messes, but there is such thing as too many toys.
Maybe for some people clutter is just clutter - nothing more, nothing less. Its not a source of stress. If that is you, more power to ya! But in this house the clutter is affecting our way of life. How can I be the mom and wife I want to be when I'm constantly stressing over the state of our home? How much more free time would we have if we stopped shuffling clutter from place to place and finally got rid of the things we don't need/use?
How much extra baggage (and subsequent stress/work) are we carrying year to year?
Matthew 6:19-21 says: "
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
I love our home. While I wouldn't call it my treasure, I know that my priorities are out of whack when I focus more on my home and its messes than I do ministering to the needy and the lost. Which is why I'm on a new mission to eliminate unnecessary baggage in our home in order to better concentrate on our goals as a family.
You have baggage.
Most of us are quick to associate the term "baggage" with things like personal insecurities, poor body image or wounds from previous relationships, but I would challenge you to think of it on a broader scale. One definition I found is
'an abstract thing or idea which weighs upon a person, and ends up obstructing or inhibiting him/her'.
For my sister Stephanie, the 'eliminate and concentrate' principle challenged her to remove the Facebook and Words With Friends apps from her iPhone. As a result, she has freed up time to do more reading and write personal notes to friends, activities she is more likely to glean from.
Do you spend too much time on Facebook and Pinterest and then kick yourself later because you failed to accomplish your to-do list for the day? Try taking a break from social media and see how freeing it can be.
Are you the person who says 'yes' to every commitment and then can't figure out why you're always so exhausted or don't have time to yourself? As
Money Saving Mom says, when you say 'yes' to one thing you are saying 'no' to something else. It is okay to limit your commitments.
Its time to check your baggage.
You're at the airport about to depart. The pilot is asking everyone to gate check any baggage they don't need for the flight. Take a good look at what you're carrying. Do you really need all that baggage?
Eliminate and concentrate.
As a Christian, I prefer to view the analogy this way:
God, the True Pilot, is asking you to gate check any baggage you won't need for your journey with Him. Are you ready to let go?
.jpg){kind=link}