Too many lids?

It may seem like a small thing, but yesterday I emptied the dreaded 'lid drawer' of all those plastic lids to the various size containers I have in another drawer. Then I pulled out those containers and guess what I did next....I matched them up! Lid with container until all were matched. Then I found what I had suspected all along....many a lid remained with no matching container. Why? Perhaps the container had found another use such as it being a holder of items in a storage drawer, or it just simply got yucky looking and was discarded. I was left with 10 or more lids with no 'mate'. No wonder that drawer was frustrating me! I then sorted through the containers until I found the best to keep and made up a box to take to the local thrift store. Know what? I finally can find a lid to match my remaining containers! Once the 'clutter' was gone, it was easy to do! There are just times when we need to take time to 'declutter' our lives a little. Not just the junk drawers in the kitchen, but the inner emotions that have an effect on our outward actions!

So get rid of all that is wrong in your life, both inside and outside, and humbly be glad for the wonderful message we have received, for it is able to save our souls as it takes hold of our hearts. (James 1:21 TLB)

There are a lot of us who allow too much 'clutter' in our emotions. We hold onto stuff that we know very well holds no purpose in our lives, and we find ourselves kind of 'sorting through' all the clutter most of the time. We cannot really do much until we finally allow for the stuff to just get put in order, though! Just like the lids and containers in my kitchen, the emotions that clutter our lives are likely not of much benefit to us. They are only creating a whole lot of extra work! They get in the way of getting at what we really want to say, how we should respond, or what we really need to be feeling in the first place. How do we know it is time to declutter our emotions. There are times that we find the emotion doesn't 'match' the issue - just like the lids not matching the containers in my kitchen. There are lots emotions, but the issue is just not 'matching up' to the emotions being displayed. Whenever we see this 'mismatch' occur, it is likely time to take time alone with God to allow a decluttering to occur!

You might think there is no 'mismatch' going on in your life, but most of us have a 'lid or two' hanging around inside our emotional 'lid drawer' that needs to be sent packing. It serves no purpose and only gets in the way of what we should really be focusing on anyway. When we ask for God's help to 'declutter' our emotions and memories, we find he does a very thorough job to all the 'drawers' we give him access to. If we hold back a 'drawer or two', we might benefit from the 'clean up' of the ones he declutters, but we will still not have freedom from the 'total clutter' in our emotions. Those 'off-limits' drawers in our emotions are not benefiting us! They are creating chaos and frustration - so why not give him access and be free of the clutter? Just askin!