Red Wednesday's Wisdom - CHG #6, Part One

See Through My Stuff from the Inside Out and Follow Through

A we reflect on CHG # 6, See Through My Stuff from the Inside Out and Follow Through, think about what this CHG implies as being the root cause of my clutter?

1.  My clutter builds up when I cannot see the “stuff” that is inside my:

♥ Head

♥ Heart

♥ Piles

♥ Files

♥ Bags

♥ Containers

 

2.  My clutter builds up when I do not follow through with a task or do what I said or intended to do.

Therefore, when I see through my “stuff” from the inside out and follow through, I lessen my clutter and this brings healing to me.

The Scripture to support CHG # 6 is from Matthew 23:26, “…First wash the inside of the cup and then the outside will become clean too.” What does Matthew 23:26 imply as being the root cause of my clutter?

♥ My clutter builds up when my priority is outward focused rather than inward focused.

♥ My clutter builds up when my outward appearance is more important than what is inside.

♥ My clutter builds up when I focus on your “stuff” rather than my own “stuff.”

Therefore, when I address what is on the inside of my head and heart, I am in the process of being cleansed, and this lessens my clutter and brings healing to me.

If you open your Life Recovery Bible to Matthew 23:26, you will see that the first sentence to this verse only consists of two words.  They were spoken by Jesus when He said, “Blind Pharisees!"

Here is my word of caution:  we need to avoid making the mistake of thinking these words were just for the Pharisees, who were a religious sect of Judaism.  The Pharisees were so extremely devoted to God’s laws that they became blind to the heart and love of Jesus as their Messiah. 

When I look at these words from a personal perspective, I am challenged to remove my own blinders.  I need to address the truth about how I see myself: 

♥ Is my focus on how I want to appear or who I truly am? 

♥ Are my motives guided by pride or humility? 

♥ Do I say one thing but do another?  

♥ Do I walk my talk?

♥ Am I inclined to evaluate and correct the faults of others more than myself?

♥ Do I look full of life, but inside I am dying?

From the very beginning when I introduced you to Spirit Work (SW), we have been learning to wash the inside of our own cups as we have entertained the questions that related to our individual thoughts and feelings.

The concept of seeing through my stuff originally came out of my Home Touched organizing business.  It relates to how we begin to sort through our material “stuff” and establish a home by containerizing those possessions.    

♥ Clear containers or bags provide the simplicity to “see through” or into the container.

♥ Non clear containers or bags are used when it is not desirable or necessary to “see through” or into the container

"Seeing though my stuff " also developed out of my spiritual need to look inward.  It’s an uncomfortable feeling to admit that I need to be cleansed. I need God’s spiritual eyes to “see through” the “stuff” of my own denial.  Denial represents the darkness of what I do not want to look at or want to "see through."  CHG #6  is about going inward to make an honest inventory about myself.  It means that I will take off my blinders and come out of my hiding.  I will “see through” my sin, my denial, my greed, my self –indulgence, my finger pointing, and whatever else the Holy Spirit reveals about me.

Over the next few weeks I am going to encourage you to write to me and ask whatever questions you have about material clutter and how to organize it.  You can either comment at the bottom of this post or you can email me directly at colleen.flenner@gmail.com In the Clutter Healing Classes, it has been amazing to witness how few questions participants had about their material clutter.  When people make an honest attempt to put the CHG’s into practice, they find out that their material clutter gets resolved.  For those of you who struggle with material clutter I hope that happens for you.

This coming week, our SW is to ask the Lord to help us see what we have been blind to seeing, and then ask Him how we are to follow through with addressing that blindness.

The song called Mary’s Alabaster Box by Cece Winans is such a great example of someone who looked at her life from the inside out and followed through with making a change.  May it inspire you to do the same.   

Red Wednesday's Wisdom - CHG #5, Part Three

Embrace Change and Set Goals Patiently
As you addressed your specific clutter category this past week, did any of the symbols for CHG # 5, like the caution ribbon, a blinking yellow light, or the sunflower, remind you to embrace the change or set the goal that is needed so you can lessen your clutter and find healing?  What thoughts or feelings did the symbolism evoke in you?

Maybe the topic of confronting was more of an attention getter for you than the symbolism.  If so, how did it bring about change for you or influence you in your goal setting?  Perhaps God’s plans for you, based on Jeremiah 29:11, or the song called The Basics of Life, helped you to move from that mind set of hopelessness or disaster to a place of hope.  It can be so hard to give up behaviors that are not healthy for us because at least we know they are familiar and predictable.  And when we do attempt to make changes, we often try to reason our way out of those cluttered behaviors rather than praying about them.

As we wrap things up with CHG # 5, I want to reinforce how the word patience is very dependent upon us making a conscientious decision to slow ourselves down (CHG #1).  So I thought it might be helpful if I gave some examples of how our impatience increases our specific clutter categories, as represented in the MMESS PR acronym.  I will then give some suggestions on how to lessen that clutter:

♥ Mental - I change my mind so much that I get all caught up in the activity of change, consequently, nothing gets resolved.  I am exhausted, angry, and without peace.  So, I will patiently ask God for the plan that I need and learn to trust Him and His plan.

♥ Material - I am so overwhelmed by my stuff, and I am the one who has permitted it to come in.  So, I will patiently confront myself in learning how to say, “No thank you.”

♥ Emotional - I am always feeling dumped on and misused.  So, I will patiently nurture myself by withdrawing from people who disrespect me and take advantage of me.

♥ Situational - I can get obsessed with the busyness of everything – shopping, working, driving, and texting. So, I will patiently focus on doing one activity at a time and I will ask God to help me become more aware of the patterns that can weigh me down. 

♥ Spiritual - I am consistently thinking about and verbalizing my desire to no longer live.  So, I will patiently meditate on Jeremiah 29:11 and provide myself with the sleep and diet that will enhance my well being.  As long as God gives me breath, I need to believe that He has a purpose for my life. 

♥ Physical - I over consume all kinds of things and then I do not feel good physically, emotionally, or psychologically.  So, I will patiently consider the thoughts and feelings that drive me to indulge, and then harm me, and I will seek the support I need.

♥ Relational – I am always striving to be loved and accepted.  It is wearing me thin.  So, I will patiently remind myself that being worthy of love and acceptance is based on how God alone loves me, and not what I do or who I am.

Change is about growing and learning, and with change, growing and learning also takes place. We need to be ready mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically, and then we often need that information to be repeated and reviewed in order for change to actually happen.

If you have been committed to reading this teaching blog, then you have been in the process of changing, growing, and learning.  As you continue to change, grow, and learn, be patient with yourself.  It takes 31 days to establish a new habit and for it to become a part of you.  The Lord used the Book of Proverbs to teach me this.  Proverbs has 31 chapters and it is also known as the Book of Wisdom.  There is truly simplicity and wisdom in how God uses the Bible to teach us.  The 31 chapters in Proverbs symbolizes the 31 days it takes for us to develop a new habit. 

1 Corinthians 13:4 tells us that love is patient and kind.  Being patient is characteristic of love, so let’s practice being more patient with ourselves and with one another.

Red Wednesday's Wisdom - CHG #5, Part Two

Embrace Change and Set Goals Patiently

It started it my mind, and then, without warning, it started leaking from my mouth!  It was an organized scenario that went something like this:

♥ Great, another hour of driving, not to mention all of the traffic, and now I get to figure out how to navigate myself through downtown Chicago and a parking garage that could service 6 huge hospitals!  
♥ Instead of taking one hour out of the month to see the doctor, I am going to have to take an entire day! 
♥ And oh gee, I also get to spend more money on gas and parking!

Suffice it to say, that as I voiced these uncensored comments to my daughter, her surprised response to my irritated tone made me keenly aware of how my thoughts and words were void of any kind of joy.  I was not embracing the changes that had to do with my health!  It was such a great example of the emotional clutter I can create for myself when I do not make the conscious decision to embrace the changes that come into my life.   Consequently, anger can subtly sneak in and become the ultimate emotion that robs me of my peace. 

Last week’s SW was focused on asking the Holy Spirit to help us determine what meaning the words embrace and change held for us as we looked at our individual clutter. And then we were to patiently consider the one goal or boundary that God wanted us to set for ourselves as we asked for His plan regarding our clutter issue.

Here is how it went for me as I recognized the need to renew my thinking by embracing the picture that I described above:

♥ When I slowed myself down to patiently think before I spoke another word, I realized just how blessed I was to be only an hour’s drive from Chicago and be connected with a doctor who possessed the wisdom that I needed and had asked God for as we addressed the rarity of my medical situation.  Yes, this is a huge change from what use to be a non hassled 10 minute drive for me, but this change is going to be so advantageous when it comes to the overall care of my health.   
♥ How cool  is it to have one day a month where I can see my doctor and be just one street away from Michigan Avenue where I can enjoy sightseeing, shopping, or eating out in downtown Chicago?
♥ What a deal it is to park in Chicago for up to seven hours at the hosptial garage with an out of pocket expense of only $10.00. 
♥ I am making it a goal to embrace the changes that involve my health by being patient with what takes place in my present life compared to my past, and enjoy the process.

The clutter of chores has been replaced by a move that focuses on family and health.  And as I have shared in previous postings, I know this move was clearly God’s plan for me .The details of God’s plan continues to be revealed to me and especially when I look at them in light of the Scripture that supports CHG # 5 in Jeremiah 29:11. I know that God has His plan for me and they are plans for my good and not my disaster, to give me a future and a hope.

Some of the symbols that God has consistently used with me to get my attention and remind me to apply CHG # 5 is the:

♥ Yellow and black caution ribbon - It warns me to be aware of the potential danger when I do not apply this guideline.
♥ Yellow caution light – It too warns me, but to continue moving forward and at a  slower speed.
♥ Sunflower – Have you ever noticed how the face of a sunflower eventually bows its head?  It helps me to remember how I often need to be humbled, especially of my pride.  When I put myself in that same position of bowing or kneeling down before God, I am saying that I also recognize the position that God has in my life.  There is no debate.  God will always see and know more than I will ever be capable of seeing or knowing.

Confronting – I address this theme in my teaching of CHG # 5 because confronting is hard for most of us to do, and it causes us to actually increase the clutter of our relationships. I like how confront is defined in Webster’s as a face to face, especially in a challenge, it is a meeting together.  We often make the erroneous assumption in our thinking that to confront means this will bring about conflict.  Consequently, this kind of thinking often stirs up the feeling of fear.  The greater conflict is in staying silent about something that could bring about a desirable change. I would like to challenge you to change your thinking about the word confront and the feeling that it stirs in you.  The prefix con actually means “with” or “together” so think of confront as a coming together face to face, with the intention to do it in love and not judgment.

Go back to thinking about CHG # 4 where you actually confronted yourself in learning how to nurture love with yourself and others.  It can be very challenging to come face to face with yourself in front of a mirror and to eventually believe that you are worthy of being loved.  But this is what will equip you to genuinely love others in the way God loves you.  All the previous CHG’S have been challenging you to first confront yourself before confronting another.

Your SW this week is to see if any of the above symbols get your attention about what you are needing to patiently embrace, change, and set as a goal, and then write down the thoughts that come to you as these symbols speak to you. 

I hope the following song called “The Basics of Life” by 4 Him will touch your heart and move you to consider where God wants to bring about change in your life. 

Red Wednesday's Wisdom - CHG #5, Part One

Embrace Change and Set Goals Patiently
I am thankful for this opportunity to again connect with you, and I can tell you that my time off was definitely embraced.  I was renewed, refreshed, and reenergized.  I do apologize for the extra two weeks that was taken off, due to my daughter, who is my blog editor.  She also took this guideline to heart and took some time off as well.

When the Lord originally put this verb embrace on my heart, in terms of how to approach change, I found it very challenging at that time, and I still do now.  When I am facing any kind of change, whether it is welcomed or unwelcomed, I have to repetitively tell myself to embrace it, because that change for me is usually a change from my anticipated routine.  For me to embrace change, it implies that I wrap my arms around it and accept it. I embraced this past vacation with opened arms, but to embrace all the packing and the scheduling that it involved?  That was very hard for me to embrace, but I did it by not getting myself all worked up and out of sorts.  It has never helped me to do that so why do it?  How did I embrace the change of breaking my ankle this past summer? I did it one day at a time, (CHG #1 slow down), and it meant that I was constantly praying and asking God to help me focus on the good that He would bring out of my being physically broken (CHG #3).  God’s goodness certainly did come my way.  The broken ankle was instrumental in getting me to sell my home.  Consequently, the clutter of house chores was lessened (my clutter category was situational and the sign/symptom was house chores).  I ended up moving into a condo, and I love that there are no outdoor chores.  And for the first time, I am writing this blog from that new condo which is only 15 minutes away from my daughter, son in law, and two precious grandchildren, who use to be 5 hours away!   What blessings have come from a temporary brokenness!

As we look at our individual circumstances, how do we find ourselves truly embracing change, especially if the change is about a loss due to health, death, income, or a relationship? And today, with it being the day after our presidential election, it is a perfect example of how some are embracing the results and others are ranting and raving.  Based on CHG # 5, God is telling us that our personal clutter will lessen if we choose to embrace whatever comes our way.  And guess what?  As we apply any of the CHGs to our personal lives it will have a ripple effect on our family, our communities, and our nation.

The added dimension of embracing change has to do with patience.  I am forever struggling to be patient as I listen to the talk that can go on inside of my head saying, “I wanted it to happen now, yesterday, a week ago, a year ago, or 20 years ago!  Once again, I have to remind myself to slow down (CHG #1).  And when I do that, it causes me to slow down my thinking and say this instead, “The timing is not in my hands. It is in God’s.”  This kind of thinking helps me to let go of trying to make things happen that are not within my power or time frame.  I need to wait on God’s movement and His timing.    

So, CHG # 5 tells me to Embrace Change and Set Goals Patiently.
What does CHG # 5 imply as being the root cause of my clutter?

♥ My clutter builds up when I do not embrace change.

♥ My clutter builds up when I do not embrace change with patience.

♥ My clutter builds up when I do not set goals.

♥ My clutter builds up when I do not set goals with patience.

Therefore, when I embrace change and set goals patiently, I lessen my clutter and this brings healing to me.

When I think about setting goals, they represent the end result that I hope to see.  Sometimes I think of goals as boundaries that reflect what I need to hold on to and what I need to let go of.  Goals help us to embrace change and help us in planning, projecting, and having direction.  And once again, we are being reminded to be patient even in setting them.  This also means that we need to be patient with the actual outcome, because there are times when the outcome differs from the goal that was set.

I encourage you to write down your goals.  Writing them down becomes a reinforcement to reach them.  Seeing your goals on paper is a reminder to move in a forward direction, remembering that the timing and outcome is in God’s hands.

The Scripture to support CHG # 5 is from Jeremiah 29:11 “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord.  ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’ ”

What does Jeremiah 29:11 imply as being the root cause of my clutter?

♥ My clutter builds up when the plans I have for myself are not God’s but mine

♥ My clutter builds up when the plans I have made are not for my good and bring disaster

♥ My clutter builds up when I perceive no future or hope

Therefore, when I let go of my plans that can be disastrous, and embrace the plans that God has for me that give me a future and hope, I lessen my clutter and this brings healing to me.

Did you notice in this Scripture Who does know the plans for you?  “I” does not stand for me or for you.  God is the “I” who knows the plans, and it is never God’s plan for us to miss out on His goodness or to experience disaster.  Disaster is what you and I create when we go our way.  God’s way gives us a plan for the future and for hope!

This week’s SW is to ask the Holy Spirit to help you in determining what meaning the words embrace and change hold for you in your life as you reflect on your own clutter category.  And then, patiently consider the one goal or boundary that God wants you to set for yourself as you ask for His plan regarding your clutter issue.