Mom Unplugged

No Clutter = Freedom

Nov 17, 2007 Unplugged Moments

I watch Oprah quite often. Yesterday and today she had a special on a woman who had over 7 tons or thrash and a warehouse of stuff she had accumulated over the years. It was awful!

Her children grew tired of what was in their parents’ home so they took action and turned her in to the Oprah show.

The Oprah staff thought it would take two days to clean up Sharon’s home but it took two months and at the the end they had a rummage sale that made over $13,000. Of course the stuff was worth more than that but it had to be discounted.

She was sick physically, mentally, and emotionally as a result of the junk in their home.

Can I tell you something?

We had a problem something like that. You see my husband had a habit of just leaving stuff where it was. So he just accumulated junk.

I hated it!

But he was in a depression that he would not admit to and he had a problem believing that God thought he was worth anything. That comes from years of hearing he would never amount to anything. Even when he knew he was called to be a minisiter, he was told it was not a worthy occupation for a Ham-Ying.

I tell you what, your relationship with your parents will affect your relationship with your Father.

Anyway for the first 4 1/2 years of your marriage I dealt with this habit by fussing, throwing all his junk away, piling is in a corner, telling him that I don’t want company because he is so junkie to just plain not talking to him. Cleaning and threatening did not help… nothing did.

That’s when I knew the problem was much deeper than the junk.

One day I just started praying for the Lord to show me that way because I was at my wits end.

You should have seen my dining room table! Now I like a clean house so it wasn’t an 1/8 of what Sharon’s home looked like. Our house was more of an organized junk pile.

One day my dear husband looked at me and said, “This house is really messy isn’t it?”

I said, “You think!”

And then we talked about how he felt about himself and how he thought God saw him. I was shocked because as I said my husband is a minister and I thought all ministers had some idea of God’s love for them.

My husband knew he was loved but in more of a Father disciplining his child every day and spending time with the child only to tell him what needs to be done. Oh how wrong he was and I reminded him of Psalms 139 where it give us a laundry list of just how much God really does love us.

I think he cried that night but you know what….that’s growth and it only encouraged him more to go forward in what the Lord has for him with ministry (a lifestyle ministry by the way).

That day he saw that the clutter in his life had less to do with the physical junk, but the mental junk he had bottled up for 50 years. Sad how what our parents do to us as children follow us right into adulthood without the proper guidance.

Today he knows more about the love of God and that He is worthy of all that God has for him. It has made a world a difference.

Yeah sure he still makes some messes but old habits die hard. However, every day I watch him try hard to be on time, organized, and less of a mess.

I think for my husband, Sharon, and other recovering hoarders they see that No Clutter really does equal FREEDOM!

Praise God for Freedom! For me that is truly an unplugged moment.