We're T-12 days until “Operation:
Sell Everything” (a.k.a. having our garage sale). I have a
love/hate relationship with garage sales. I love making money on
crap that I don't want or need anymore, but I hate the hours upon
hours of work they involve. Especially because the work requires
lots of organization, which is not one of my strong points. I'm also
a procrastinator. So although I could have been leisurely going
through each room of the house within the past 6 months since we
found out we'd be leaving, I decided to wait until the last 3 weeks
to start really going through the house instead. Because who doesn't
love to be overwhelmed and completely stressed out when working
against the clock?!
Looking at and going through the
massive amount of stuff we've accumulated over the past few
years makes me all the more anxious to get rid of it all and live a
more simple life with few belongings. As I was going through the
bins of kids' clothes that we've saved, I couldn't believe how many
clothes I had in some sizes. The sheer number of 0-3 month girl
clothes we have is ridiculous. As I stacked them up, the pile went
higher than the bin they're supposed to fit in. The outfits and
dresses are all adorable, but our girls wore some of those outfits
maaaaaybe once. I only dressed them up in cute outfits when they
were being seen by people. If we were home, most days they would
stay in a sleeper!
As I'm going through things, I'm very
thankful that I'm not a sentimental person. It has made it so much
easier to go through the baby clothes and other things that I could
get choked up over if I were a different personality. I'm just
thankful for the memories they bring and have very little trouble
saying good-bye to them, hoping they'll bless someone else. I guess
to me, things don't replace the moment or event so they don't mean as
much to me. I'm so pragmatic about things, though, that Robert
wonders if I have a sentimental bone in my body. He was appalled
when I wanted to throw away dried flowers from our wedding. I guess
that does seem cold. What can I say? I'm Scandinavian.
Please keep us in your prayers these
next couple of weeks as we continue to get ready for this sale.
Having so much still to do, I've been identifying with Peter lately
as he walked on the water toward Jesus; I've been looking at the
piles of stuff all around me that still need to be gone through
instead of keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus. I'm not walking on water,
but I sure feel like I'm sinking sometimes. Please pray that we can
rely on Christ's strength in this and not on our own.
Let us know how we can pray for you!
