you can’t take it with you

Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands.

- Ecclesiastes 5:15 (NIV)

 

Ok, who has heard of the KonMari method? 

Come on, at least one person in your life since 2019 has decided to “go Marie Kondo” on their homes, and if something didn’t “spark joy” it was supposed to be tossed away.

I had to clean my grandmother’s apartment when she went into a skilled nursing facility, that woman could have used a little of Marie in her life!  

I went through the same thing a few times with my mother, moving her from Iowa to assisted living here, then from assisted living to skilled nursing and then her last move in December when she passed away and I brought her belongings home with me. 

I still have a section of my attic that has her stuff, clothes, cassette tapes, pictures, books miscellaneous stuff that I will probably never take out of the boxes.

We recently started working on the interior of our home, replacing floors, painting, making it look fresh and new (ok to clarify, my amazing husband is doing most of the work), and as we have gone through each room I am forcing myself to get rid of stuff.  

I hate to dust, so having a bunch of knickknacks and “things” sitting on shelves is about to drive me crazy.

I don’t know what compels me to keep stuff, we can’t take it with us when we die as clearly stated in this verse in Ecclesiastes, and I am pretty certain that my kids will have no use for the cat picture that I drew in the 3^rd grade (also in a box in the attic).

These are “things” and maybe they do or maybe they don’t “spark joy” but for certain the joy is usually a memory associated with the item, and memories are far better than “things”.

I want nice things, I work hard for the nice things that bring me joy, but in the end, will there be more joy in my “things”, or will there be joy for a life well lived, a life full of friends, a life where I shared the love of Jesus with everyone I met?

That is something that we can take with us.  

 

#dailybreadbykitty

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