A Time To Keep, And A Time To Cast Away

This morning during my devotions this one little piece of Ecclesiastes 3:6 jumped out at me, "a time to keep, and a time to cast away." You see, since I left my job two weeks ago I have been going through my belongings little by little and deciding what I should keep and what I really need to let go of.  So far I have taken away 14 bags of clothing and miscellaneous other items to the Faith Centre Thrift Shop, and it's only the beginning.  It wasn't all mine.  Quite a bit of it was Eric's, some of it was Heather's, and a few things belonged to the boys.  Over the years we have been really bad about accumulating things without making room for them.  Our house is a mess because we are hoarders.  

Today I am going through old cards that I have been saving for decades.  I found among them an invitation to a Graduation party from 1992.  I was a Junior in High School that year.  I honestly don't even remember the party if I went to it.  I have tons of thank you notes.  It's nice to remember the gestures of the past, but again, I don't even remember some of the people who wrote them.  The cards I have the most of are from Christmas.  It's tough. Many of the cards are from people who have long since passed on.  I feel like I need to keep some of them as a memory while realizing that we all will pass on eventually, so what should I part with? 

The most precious things that I am finding are cards and notes that our children made for us when they were little.  I just can't part with those.  Some day they will have children and I just might pull out my little stash and show them what their  parents were like at their age. They were so sweet!  "Mommy I love you so much."  "Mommy you are the best Mommy ever."  I found a couple from Heather apologizing for arguments we had, and also notes from Austin, Heather and Darren trying to persuade me to take them to Eric's softball game when Austin apparently had been sick.  It's just so special to remember what they were like when they were children. 

I have a lot of work and a lot of decisions ahead of me, but there is also value and blessing in the process.  Sometimes I think, "Why did I do this to myself?  Why did I keep all of this?"  Then I find those little hidden treasures that I am glad I still have.  So now I have to decide in this present time what I will keep and what I will cast away.  There is a time for everything.