The Path we leave behind us

“He leads me in paths of righteousness, for His name’s sake.” Psalm 23:3

My husband and I have reached the age where we need to look carefully at what to save and what to purge from our lives. Even though we downsized from a larger home to a smaller one several years ago, there is still a lot that could, and probably should be eliminated. Complicating the task, in the time frame from when we moved to the smaller living space, we have also acquired things from family members who have gone to their eternal resting place. Going through our own items is difficult enough. Having to sort through the emotional attachment to theirs as well as ours often makes the task seem insurmountable.

But procrastination only makes things more difficult.

Tackling the task isn’t easy. There are a lot of memories attached to so many things, but if we don’t make some effort to let go of what is behind, we become weighed down with too much stuff. Not only that, but we will create a heavier burden for the children and grandchildren to bear. Making the right choices on what to save for them and what to get rid of isn't much fun. Although I am making a genuine effort to remove that which is no longer beneficial, I know there are many items that I won’t get rid of yet. Some of the things, like my grandmother’s 20-piece glass punch bowl set, are simply too precious. Old photos of people who I have no idea who they are, are not.

Little by little, piece by piece, I choose to leave a less cluttered path for those who come behind me to walk on. There are certainly times when I simply want to give up, but I won’t. Instead I will press forward and ask myself these questions as I do so:

• Is it useful/helpful?

• What is its value? (Emotional or financial)

• Is it worth saving?

I can’t see into the future, but I can do my best each day to make today count. Choosing to be productive in some positive way has immense benefits. Not just in the day to day feeling of accomplishing something, but more importantly, to do my very best with the time the Lord has given me. The thing I desire most to leave my children and grandchildren, is a path that leads them into a deep and meaningful relationship to Jesus Christ.

I will do everything I can while I am living to make sure that path as uncluttered as possible.

Things to remember

Learning new things in my old age hasn’t been easy, but that doesn’t mean I am unable to do so.

I spent the better part of the day working on my computer so I could use the Word program to continue my writing. It meant figuring out how to remove old unused programs and move photos to a thumb drive. I was successful in doing that (yay me) but needed my oldest granddaughter’s help to reset the computer to our new wi-fi network.

Technology has never been my strong suit as it requires using a different side of my brain. However, here I am now finally able to use my computer again after months of it being nearly inoperable. It had been sluggish and new programs wouldn’t load because of lack of space. My brain feels that way a lot sometimes. Too much information assaults me daily and I must choose the things I am going to save to my memory and the things I am going to delete.

There is immense value in remembering. After all, we need to remember our passwords and pin numbers. We want people to remember our name and things we have done that are pleasing or helpful to them. If we have done a job for an employer, we want them to remember to pay us and possibly even reward us with a bonus for a job well done. We want to remember where we parked our car when we come out of the grocery store, where we put our glasses or shoes, or the items we bought from the grocery store. We love it when people remember our birthday or during the holidays.

We don’t want to be forgotten.

And yet how quickly we are willing to forget. Or maybe our brains are simply overloaded like my poor computer and need a reset.

The news media and much of the world around us sends a negative message every day. We are bombarded from nearly every angle with things that can quickly make us feel overwhelmed. It is no wonder that people simply want to shut down or try to change things. The best way to overcome the negative is by removing what isn’t helpful and inserting something positive in its place, a reset.

Scripture tells us to have peace of spirit we are to meditate on what is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, of any virtue and anything praiseworthy. (Philippians 4:8)

For me, this has proven to be beneficial 100% of the time.

May God richly bless you today and always and may all your memory be filled with good things.