From Trash to Treasures

In the past, showing you my junk drawers (there are two. ok, maybe three) would be the equivalent to me having to strip naked and streak past you.

The normal routine with my drawers is stuff/ life gets packed and packed in them until the messiness guilt I feel when I open them and the twitching that occurs in my type A++ husband when he sees them causes me to dump everything out, sort, clean, and organize, usually every three, four, or maybe six months.

But, as I opened one of them today, my most used of the three, I realized that for me personally when these drawers are full and at their messiest, the other areas of my life are alot less messy, my joys seem to be resting more in the permanent, the longer lasting marks, the moments, my true loves. It is a small sign that I have let go of my selfish need for performance, which really at the root is just my need for approval, to enjoy the blessings that have been put before me, offerings that far exceed any silly standard I have set for myself.

As I rifled through the drawer, I found a lava rock from Maui where I was able to look out over the vastness and beauty of a volcano, ribbons and nail polish which allow some of my favorite conversations with my girl as I linger just a little bit longer while fixing her hair and painting her nails, a set of shark cards that have provided hours of fun, laughter, and fascination for my boys and I, ear phones reminding me of outdoor runs where I return mentally and physically restored-the health I have been given, a receipt from dinner with friends, paint pens used for a project with some special boys who most of the time end up teaching me, a card where I had desperately journaled out a prayer with an issue in my life that I now have seen answered.....this jumbled up mess of a drawer that looks like junk to everyone else somehow serves as a beautiful reflection to me of what I really need.....and, how much we even with all our junk are that much more beautiful to the One who made us, He really sees us......and, how often what seems to be our junk is used to transform us into His treasured offering.

And, ok, maybe today I just really didn't want to tackle my junk drawer : )