LEARNING THAT LESS IS MORE

How was everyone's Christmas? We're still in the middle of our travels and festivities but so far it's been a good one for us! The best part of all is having Thane with us this year, considering last year he was halfway around the world. Anyway, now that New Years {and the time for resolutions, yay!} is right around the corner, I've been thinking about goals I want to accomplish for 2015. I have a whole handful of ideas, but the main one can pretty much be summed up in one word- simplifying! Especially in regards to our home and what we own. Sometimes I catch myself browsing Pinterest just to see other people's clean, uncluttered houses. Like the living room above, complete with a pristine coffee table arranged with fresh flowers, a lit candle, and nice books. {All the things that can't even be in arms reach in our house, much less on the coffee table haha.} 

These five minute "escapes" into other people's living rooms feel like a vacation, because that's five less minutes that I'm juggling all the stuff in my own house. Of course I know that true perfection doesn't exist anywhere on this earth. But if you're a mom caught in the constant whirlwind of keeping up with your home and family, you probably welcome a little escape as much as I do!

And that's why I've been doing a lot of thinking about what we own, why we own it, and what it all adds or takes away from our lives. As I've mentioned a few times already, it started with our toys, but it encompasses so much more than that; our closets, our wardrobes, our kitchen cabinets, our bathroom storage, our basement, our attic, even my makeup bag.

There is excess stuff literally everywhere. And the bigger our family grows and the busier I get managing our home, the more I realize that most of these things are a bigger burden than they are a blessing. Not that we aren't blessed to have what we do, we are. But I'm starting to understand why Jesus says to “take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” {Luke 12:15} I'll be the first to admit that I like nice things. I like to shop and decorate with the best of them. But when I find myself spending more and more time managing my "stuff", and less time investing in my relationship with God and my family, there's a problem. And it feels like I've been walking that line for a while. 

I want to pursue a simple, intentional life for our family. One that is God and family centered. So, with a spirit of repentance and a determination to change, I'm learning to apply the less-is-more principle to every area of our life. In other words, I'm in serious purge mode. And boy, is it liberating! I've been loading up and donating a steady stream of unused, unneeded items that have done nothing but cluttered up our home. It's a lot of work and it's a long process, {and Thane doesn't exactly appreciate the back of my car being filled with stuff that takes a little longer to get dropped off than he would like, haha}, but little by little I can see our house and our lives getting simpler with each donation-drop we make.

So praise God for that, and with any luck I'll keep it up!