Happy New Year

Welcome to 2010. This year has begun with a new sense of cleaning out and reorganizing like never before. We have been over to Randy’s parents home cleaning out the entire apartment. Yesterday when we went to take his mom to live in the nursing home, because she has to have 24 hour care, reality set in about what is important and what is not. We both felt that truly for the first time, we were missing Howard, since his passing Dec 8th. It was just so odd being in their house without them there and seeing things from a different perspective. Randy found a little cookie jar that he remembered always getting cookies out of when he was little. He found a stack of all of his report cards that his parents had kept. Even the glass he wore when he was 10. We continue to uncover so many different articles that were important to both Hazel and Howard, but really, so much of it, will be taken to second hand shops or given to other relatives. While driving home, we both agreed that after we get through with this “empting out mission” we will make an attempt to get rid of things that are of no use to anyone or of no interest. Will our kids want any of the cookbooks which I have collected over the years? Will they want all of our old Christmas cards, the pictures from all of our “memory making trips”? Probably not. So come spring, we are going to truly put our noses to the grind and try to think ahead and get rid of things that we feel would just be thrown out one day anyway. It made me also stop and think about things that I continue to buy. Why am I continuing to buy more “stuff”? When we leave this life, we certainly cannot take anything with us. All we will take is the “heavenly treasures” that we have built. So this year will be one of examination. Am I being a good steward of the money God has blessed me with. Am I being a good steward of the time He allows me. What “heavenly treasures” am I building. What “stuff” that is so important to me now, will be important 20 years down the road. Probably not much. As we left Hazel in the nursing home yesterday, all she is allowed are a few pictures on the wall, several changes of clothes, but truly nothing more. That is what hit me in the face. All of the things that we consider important now, will one day be left behind. Do I treasure it more than relationships? Do I treasure it more than God? What will be left in the house should I have to be put in a nursing home. I pray that the treasures that I take with me are the memories of what people have meant to me. The memories of trying to do and be what others needed. Those are the things that I want my mind to be upon, not just “stuff” that remain in a house. I pray that God will allow me to be a treasure to others, as so many have been such a blessing to my life. Let’s make 2010 the “year of friendship and blessing others” Let’s build our “treasures” in relationships, not just with others, but with the Lord. May He be the treasure that we seek, but share as well, with others. Happy New Year to each of you.