The Boxes in My Garage

Last Friday Mommy G asked me to do her a favor. She asked me to climb up on a ladder and pull down the fall/harvest decorations.

One thing you all should know about my family is that my dad and I are the list and organization people. Packing the dishwasher, putting up Christmas lights or even mowing the lawn requires more thought than most humans would care to expend, but that's the way we roll.

My dad and I had carefully and precisely packed up all the decorations last year and stacked them in a very orderly manner. We both made sure that everything is packed snugly so it wouldn't break, and organized and labeled everything to make sure that we could easily find it all next year.

So anyway, being the decorator that I am, I climbed up the stepladder thinking that we would all have a wonderful afternoon putting sentimental trinkets and treasures up around the house. But my hopes of the afternoon started to fade when my mom told me there was only one box I needed to get down.

One box? Only one! For those of you who have not seen the ceiling of our garage (that should be everyone since you can't see it), every inch of available space has been utilized through the installation of hanging shelves. We have boxes and boxes of Christmas stuff, camping stuff, and only one box of fall decorations!

Then I began to think how my family's garage relates to our lives. We save boxes and boxes of mental images, words that people have said that hurt us deeply, bad experiences, disappointments and many other sad things. We very rarely let go of those things and lots of times we only have one box of good and pure things to cherish at the end of our lives when we go back through our "garages."

What kinds of things should we be holding on to and remembering, and what kinds of things should we be letting go of? How many times have I harbored bitterness and anger just because I wanted to hate? Hate is such an ugly word, but it is what we are doing when we nurse our hurts. How many times have we all chosen to allow friendships and relationships to be torn apart by unforgiveness?

Proverbs 18:19 "An offended brother is more unyielding than a fortified city, and disputes are like the barred gates of a citadel."