This week, I have woken up to boxes, tape, and chaos around me. It is 2 weeks to moving, and each day we are trying to chip away little by little to pack up this household of 7, so we don't get overwhelmed at the very end. This is a blessing, and a curse, all at once! It seemed like such a great idea, get ahead of the moving game so it's not all left to the last few days. As I look around at what I call "the dregs of my house" all around me, I'm not convinced! Sometimes pushing hard all at once can reap great rewards.Now that I'm in the middle of packing up, all I can do is push through it! It is like a woman going into labor--you realize there is no getting out of your predicament--you have to go through it before things improve! I turn to my husband with a look of bewildered fear like, "what have we gotten ourselves into?!" He smiles back and says, "Don't worry, it has to get worse before it gets better." How true this is. I can either look around and feel doom, since once you empty closets, drawers, and furniture, things appear worse off than when you started, OR, I can focus on the rooms, closets, and drawers that are now empty, marking progress.
As I thought of my current situation, a few things struck me as learning moments. Moving has reminded me of the Starfish story. We all are familiar with this popular allegory, when after a storm had washed hundreds of starfish onto the beach, a girl began picking one up at a time, and throwing them back into the ocean. A man approached and told her she couldn't make a difference, there were too many starfish and her efforts wouldn't make a dent in the volume of starfish who needed help. After reflecting and being a bit discouraged, she brightened with a thought and continued throwing the starfish back to sea. Her response as she threw one back? "I made a difference to that one!"As I sit buried in a myriad of boxes, tape, and "the dregs of my house", I can either give in to feeling overwhelmed, which stunts my progress since I become paralyzed with the thought that "I'll NEVER get it all done", and that "there is so much to do I don't know where to start", which makes me freeze and do nothing, OR, focus on one "starfish" at a time--one box filled, one drawer emptied, one room done, recognizing that although I may not see a ton of progress on the overall task at hand, I did "make a difference to that one" room/drawer/box. What starfish do we see in our lives? What can we do to "make a difference", one person, circumstance, or attitude at a time? As I looked up the starfish story, I found a website called "Ordinary People Change the World"--again, underscoring the idea that ONE person has influence, power, and ability to make a difference. I love that concept and believe so much in the power of ONE! (More to come on that idea later.)
I also am amazed at how chaos and disorder can truly affect our ability to function and live productive lives. 1 Corinthians 14:33 states: "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace", and Paul tells the Corinthians, "Let all things be done decently and in order" (I Cor.14:40). In modern revelation we find, "Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion." I'm not implying that we have to have perfect order always, because that wouldn't allow us to take the time needed to focus on the PEOPLE in our homes, instead of perfect cleanliness. However, my personal experience of living in "confusion" and disorder, it makes sense to me that my spirit struggles to function fully when surrounded by chaos and disorganization. This principle applies to us literally, as I have described above, as well as emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, I believe. What "confusion" and "disorder" do we have around us or that we deal with on these other levels that could use some attention, so we can live more productive lives, progressing? I know God is a God of order, that He wants us to live in order, that He can teach us how to "declutter" our lives mentally, emotionally, or spiritually, so we can truly feel His PEACE.
Lastly, sometimes things really do "have to get worse before they can get better". Just as having a splinter deeply stuck in your foot requires a doctor's care, or more pain to remove it before the wound can heal, or a mother "letting" her kids hurt as they get their immunizations so they don't get a major disease later, sometimes in life things feel worse off going through a difficulty, before we see any blessing from the experience. I am most touched reading about people who, when facing a huge tragedy, still choose to turn something negative into something positive, facing it with faith and humility.
“Don't be discouraged at seemingly overwhelming odds in your desire to live
and to help others live God's commandments. At times it may seem like David trying
to fight Goliath. But remember, David did win."
So, as I face my "Goliath" moving my family twice, I will focus on the future, that I'm gaining something better, reaching my ultimate destination. My current surroundings may be "worse before they can get better", that I CAN make a difference, taking one "starfish" at a time, and remembering ultimately that "David did win". We can trust the same for us, knowing that "With God, ALL things are possible to them that believe."
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