Decluttering one step at a time....

Now ladies I have been working hard, but the above picture is not my pantry! I have been on a mission ladies! I have tackled closets, drawers, cabinets and any closed off areas in my home that desperately needed my attention. I take pride in my home being clean and put together on a daily basis, but I did not realize how much work I had until I stared unloading the above mentioned areas! Wow, I had prime real estate that was being eaten up by junk! I have been throwing away, giving away and I am not finished yet! You know you are making progress when your children come in and make this comment "Wow, Mom the pantry looks great!!" If you are like me it is the little things that get pushed aside(stuffed in a junk drawer.) I have looked for gadgets and baskets and organizing tools to help me reach my goal.

Now girls I know as much as I want my work to look like I am ready for "HGTV to come to my House" I am not. I can not duplicate exactly the way the designers do their make overs, nor do I wish to. I am happy to see the hard work I have accomplished and am content that it is "My" best. I am sad to see the media, newspaper, magazines and advertising that tells us that we should try to be like this "star" or this "product" will make us slim, happy, or content! We buy right into this, because we want to be like the beautiful people, this is especially harmful to our young people, they fall for these false ideas often. The world wants us to go after what we want no matter the cost.

All of this organizing brought to mind a story from the bible. I was reminded of the story in the bible of the 1 talent man. Three men were given talents and two used them wisely to increase them, the 1 talent man "out of fear" chose to bury his talent. As the story goes, the master returned he asked of each man what he had accomplished with what he had been given. The 1st and the 2nd man he was well pleased with and rewarded them. The third man stood before him and answered that he "out of fear" had buried his talent so that he would not lose it. The master called this man a fool. The last man did not try to "copy or duplicate" the other two, he just out of fear did nothing. The moral of the story goes something like this. Recognize your own talents and what God has given you and increase it. God doesn't want us to look to our neighbor and their talent and try to "copy" or "duplicate" what he has given them, he wants us to recognize the gift he has given us and use it to his glory. The bible says "do not covet thy neighbor." We are living in a world full of "one upping others" it is hard not to be envious or take what others have and make it our own. But remember we are to be "unique and set aside from the world." God tells us in his word how to be who he created us to be.

I think God is sad when we go about trying to make ourselves like others, whether that is celebrities, or just our neighbor. We are not using what he gave us to our best. So look to others that you admire as a model to find your talent. We don't want to be fake people and he isn't pleased when we are using our energy in this way. He wants us to be who he created us to be. Recognizing the uniqueness in ourselves and go out into the world and reaching as many as we can with that gift. I know it is hard when we are young, but when we are adults we must be accountable for our actions.

I have been working on contentment, and trying to convince myself that my pantry will never look like the one in "Better Homes and Garden", but you know what my pantry is good, because two young people said "Wow, Mom the pantry looks great." I hope you realize today that you need to organize your pantry according to your taste.

My motto is "do what is right, and everything will work out OK"

God bless and have a beautiful day.