How to be free [when you're bogged down by stuff. Litterally]

[Note: the reason it took so long for me to get this log up, is because I wanted to have a before and after picture...so I had to clean out my room! ^.^]

This is for real. Before and after. Unfortunately, the fridge isn't my domain, so there's no after ^.^




Clutter, garbage, mess, debris, disorder, jumble, scramble, whatever you want to call it. If you've ever moved, or helped someone move, you know exactly what I'm talking about. In fact, each time I help someone move, I want to burn everything I have so I won't have all this looming junk hiding in my room. The most free I've ever felt was living out of a suitcase on the road heading to New York, or even better, in the Philippines where it's actually in appropriate to wear makeup, or wear rich clothing. Mark 10:25

25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

The fact is, the less things we own, the simpler our lives our, and the less weighed down by material things we are. You bet it's hard to get to heaven if you're rich; it's because there's so many things we have that can tear us away from God, or consume our time instead of him.

“If you don’t know what to do with it, or where to put it, or why you ever bought it in the first place, or if looking at it depresses you, throw it out,” she’d say. “Never keep anything that makes you feel heavy or weighs you down.” a quote from a great
article from real Simple. It challenges readers to throw away 50 items .


[Secondly, less junk means you'll have more space, and a clean slate environment to work in.]

1. Throw it away - my best dumping time is when I'm in a bad mood. If you're angry or upset about something, what's most important and what junk is hindering you becomes clear. Try it, and you'll see a lot of the time, the stuff filling our homes is unneeded. If you are really having a hard time putting it in the trash, take a picture first. You won't regret it. You'll have nothing but a tiny external hard drive of pictures of junk. Even then, you may want to delete them.

2. Give it away - old books make great gifts, small toys can be prizes for sunday school kids, and unused clothes can be donated. Who knew you could make friends by letting go of your garbage?

3. Sell it - ebay and matt foley work. If you're too lazy, you can drop it off at
>iSOLD It in Pleasant Hill, and they'll sell it for you.

4. Prevention - This one is tough. Try not to buy things you don't need. Period. Easier said than done right? Another variation that can be made to this rule is simply throwing something away when a new item is added.

First Challenge!

♥ The Habbit
Alright. So we all do it. We wake up, startup our computers, it whizzes on, and we hear the "welcome" ring. We log on,and then we check everything.
Did I get any comments? Who is it that is recommended to be my friend? Who is requesting to be my friend? Who is online right now that I can chat with? What is my new status that I want everyone to know? What pictures should I put up? How many new emails did I get on my personal email? On my work email? What's the latest news on so-and-so's blog? What videos can I watch? What should I blog about today? What is on sale right now? What calls do I make?
It starts out as, "oh! I need to check if I have any notifications... oh! so-and-so has added new pictures! oh! this person commented on what picture? This takes hours. Hours wasted for things that in the end are going to burn.

♥ The Command
Again, my first year of youth staff [after reading spiritual mothering], we read a second book I would like to recommend called "Shopping for Time: How to Do It All and NOT Be Overwhelmed", by Carolyn Mahaney, and her three grown daughters. [Note: If you're feeling overwhelmed, miserable, or exhausted, I highly recommend this book]. In it, we learned,

"The reality is, however we don't often manage the time God has granted us on this earth with the same intentionality or skill that we bring to shopping... While we constantly-almost unconsciously-plan, evaluate, strategize, and make wise choices when shopping, we often neglect to do so with the most important matters of our lives. We wouldn't dream of going to the grocery store without a shopping list, or buying a car without haggling over the sticker price, or purchasing new shoes without checking the price tag, but we throw away our time as if we had an endless supply."

The main verse this book revolves around is:

Ephesians 5:15-16 "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil."

I remember reading this book and evaluating my first year of college where I had no job, just school, I served in GTC on Wednesdays, and helped my mother and father with their ministries. After reading this book, I realized that now was the time in my life to be used fully!Would I want to look back at this point in my life as a time I wasted? A time where I didn't do all I could for God? How could I use my time more efficiently to work for Heavenly things? I knew I could do more.

I joined youth ministry, still served in GTC, and began taking more responsibilities in youth ministry by serving in the band, helping with administration, and eventually directing a night's activities! I got to be used more, be stretched, and see how God strengthened me by filling my time up.

♥ The Challenge!
The point is, how much time do we really spend for God? Is it as much as we spend online? Eating? Driving? Working? Sadly, when I look at my life, it is only a fraction in comparison to all the time I spend on myself. I timed the amount of time I spent on electronics yesterday (excluding this blog of course) and these were the results:

My total was 5 HOURS AND 29 MINUTES ON...
VIDEO GAMES
+
INTERNET
+
PHONE CONVERSATIONS
+
TELEVISION.

I challenge you to time yourself, and then fast from whatever it is that's holding you back. The reason why people fasted in Jesus's time was to replace time you normally spent [eating] with meditating on God. Try it. One week free of "YOUR BIGGEST DISTRACTION HERE". See how dependent you are and pray on how you can be more disciplined.

If you're like me, and spend tons of time online because you need to check everything, I recommend using Digsby. It's this program you can download that lets you check all of your email accounts, social networks, and instant messaging programs at once. You sign in once, and don't have to keep checking each site. You can also filter what kind of info you receive (for example, the facebook portion can be set to only tell you when you have new messages and new wall posts etc.) This way you don't get distracted by all the other irrelevant information [like so-and-so commented on this picture etc.]

[other rules that might help you:]
1. Don't turn your computer on first thing in the morning
2. Use the computer before a set commitment. For example, if you know you have to pick up the kids at three, but only want to spend one hour of online business, then startup your computer at two. This way, you have to leave.
3. Try your best not to chat (online OR by phone) for longer than 20 minutes, and no later than 10 pm. Different people have their limits, some may not talk after nine, but it's been my experience that any conversation held after ten o'clock has a "limitless" feel in which our judgment and alertness aren't active enough. You may say things you wouldn't normally, and talk longer than you would normally.
4. Have a set Television time - This way you don't feel guilty about sitting and watching, but also that you don't watch longer, or more shows than you have time for.
5. Don't keep your computer on after 10 p.m. either. Again something about the night hours that blur together. If you don't go to bed when you should, you might not go at all; I'm sad to say that the computer takes away your sleeping time as well.

techniques for cutting a bread - the beginning of this small blog

L&L&M&S

It's hard to remember which year it was, because each year, I was placed in the same exact couple's home: Abner and Jennie's. I was in high school, and my church's youth ministry x-roads was hosting its annual Progressive Dinner. So just imagine about seven adults dressing "nicely", preparing a fine meal together, setting the table, and gathering around to eat a "semi-formal" dinner. Easy right? That's what I thought too.


This is the first year I can remember actually making it to my allotted house early enough to help prepare the meal. Why a high schooler would want to help much less cook, was beyond my 15-year-old brain's comprehension, but somehow I found myself there. I'm pretty sure we made something basic, like chicken Parmesan, and I was assigned to do a menial task, like boil noodles. That's when I noticed my partner, the other girl that had arrived early to assist Jennie the hostess, was staring blankly at the loaf of French Bread before her.

Of course, normally, there are a number of reasons one may stare at bread. There's 1. the far off absent-minded genius that daydreams constantly, lost in their own world and thought-land, 2. perhaps the bread's porous nature has reminded the girl of a sponge, and she has stopped to observe their likenesses, or 3. she didn't want, or couldn't possibly cut that loaf of bread.

At this point, I was floored. My good friend held the silver bread knife and tried to "chop" the loaf by applying pressure, but to no avail. Then suddenly a growing question bubbled in my mind, how is it that someone my age can't cut bread? So I asked her. You know what she said? "I've never been taught." I asked about any type of cooking, cleaning, etc. The same answer ensued.

Years later, I joined Youth Staff, and became that "Jennie" that supervised the dinners and teens. At the beginning of the new year, the women were halfway through their study of "Spiritual Mothering", by Susan Hunt. This book was focusing around the Titus 2 principle. As Christians, we are to lift each other up by stooping to teach one another, and humble ourselves to learn as well. At that time, and at the incident of the failed bread-cutting, I realized that every person is or can be a spiritual parent. Every person has something to teach others, and every person has something they need to learn.

I refused before to teach my colleague, for what did I know about bread cutting? Apparently a lot. There are many things you and I take for granted that we know, such as how to tie ones shoelaces, how to sweep a porch, or how to pray. But even more so are the many brothers and sisters we have that never learned these things, because they were left alone as children, as teenagers they refused to learn, or even some whose parents were never taught how to do these things, much less teach their children how.

It's true you can go online and learn through "how to" websites like metacafe.com that teach you how to fold towels, how to fix your bed, how to jog. I pray that no one in our church must resort to these because either they failed to ask, or they were denied a lesson.

[By the way, if you don't know how to cut bread, you can ask me, or watch this:]