As I'm working on getting my home organized for what seems like the millionth time (though I never seem to be able to actually finish the job), God has been teaching me a lot about what has gotten me here in the first place.  It's clear as I stack and shift and box things that the main problem is that we just have way too much stuff!  And as I clean it all up these are the lessons that God is pressing on my heart:

1)  All of these "good" things that I thought that I just had to have and can't seem to bear to get rid of are actually stealing from me what is most important in my life.  I have held on to the "good" while missing out on the best.  How much better it would be to have less things, and spend all the time that I'm using to organize actually doing things with my children who are growing up so quickly before my very eyes?

2)  How different am I than my children?  We often have the talk about contentment, and I chide them for never being satisfied with what they have.  The are always thinking about the next thing that they want (for birthday, Christmas or whatever), and once they acquire that thing it satisfies only for a short time before the "wants" start up again.  Often that much-coveted item gets totally set aside & forgotten once it has been attained.  I'm ashamed to say that I'm not much different.  Instead of being grateful for the abundant blessings and using what He has already graciously provided (curriculum, etc.), I see the next "perfect curriculum" that I just have to have, and am restless & discontent until I acquire it.  I guess this explains all of the books, papers and educational materials that I am finding myself sorting and rearranging today!  How easy it is to see the speck in someone else's eye while completely missing the plank in one's own.

3)  I glorify God most by being content with what He has graciously provided for me.  Besides that, it's a lot easier for my children to learn contentment and gratitude by watching it lived out before them instead of having it lectured to them while I am actually doing something else.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for continually teaching, leading, and guiding me.  Thank you for your unbelievable patience with me ... it seems like it takes me so long to learn the most basic lessons.  Your provision for my family and me has been more than abundant!  Please help me to store up treasures in heaven rather than trying to accumulate them here, where moth and rust and 2-year olds with markers destroy.  Thank you for loving me and never giving up on me.  May I learn to imitate you more fully as I walk before my children & try to model before them a life that brings honor & glory to you.