This past weekend, we decided enough was enough. We took the girls to my parents’ house and left them there for a weekend. (Thank you, grandparents. Grandparents are a gift from God.) We rented a dumpster. A dumpster! We nearly filled it up with trash that was inside the house. A dumpster! That’s how much stuff has accumulated in our house since we’ve had a decent time to clean out. It some ways, the cleaning out of the house was physical this weekend, but it was also metaphorical. Despite working hard this weekend, Adriene and I both commented on how relaxing the weekend was. Seems like a paradox, but it was a relief to get so much clutter out of the house. We took bags and bags of clothes to donate to charity. It’s simply unreal how much stuff we accumulated that we didn’t need. We have become very convicted about how much we waste.

Reaching back to the metaphor, I really feel that last year I accumulated so much junk and stress in my soul and I never had proper time to examine it and remove it. I’m trying to do a little bit of stepping back this year and throwing out of bad habits, bad attitudes, and laziness. It’s not nearly as relaxing as throwing out that old table that we never used that’s about to fall apart, but it is necessary. We’re letting the windows open here in the house and in my heart and letting light shine on places that have been dark for a long time.