Dealing With Stuff

“Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven….”     Matthew 6:19-20

When I was a freshman in High School, our family home was destroyed by fire.  It was through this experience my view of possessions was established.  Possessions can be replaced, people cannot.  Relationships are the most important.  I also came to the understanding that the memories behind the possessions stay within your heart long after the material object is gone or destroyed.

After my mom died, my siblings and I had to deal with my parents’ home and all of their earthly possessions.  We found the objects that had sentimental value or monetary value and divided them between the five of us.  We each had memories even if we did not receive the possession.  I still have several items of my parents. 

When Dave died, I had a condo filled with his possessions and all the furniture we had purchased in our marriage.  The first thing I did was share his clothes with his son, daughter and family and then the rest were donated to a men’s recovery program.  Many of his collections of nick knacks have been distributed to family, church family and then donated to a church sale.  Dave enjoyed collecting a wide variety of stuff.  It had meaning to him and he enjoyed decorating our homes with Native American collections and flea market treasures.  They were important to him, but the memory of his enjoyment of them was enough for me.  Therefore, I shared the collections with others so that they could have a material reminder of Dave in their homes.

I moved to my hometown for 18 months and when I began to plan my next move, I donated most of my possessions – furniture, family treasures and kitchen stuff – to my siblings and my nieces and nephews. 
I wanted others to have possessions in their homes that reminded them of Dave and the life that we had shared together.  I wanted to travel light.

I moved the basics for me – bed, clothes, office desk, chair and wall hangings.  I still have several boxes of
memorabilia to sort through.  Possessions can possess and control us.  Things have a way of taking over and overwhelming us.  We own a lot of “stuff” throughout our lives.  Many of you have had to clean out the homes
of parents, grandparents, or your own home.  When we move, it is amazing how many boxes of stuff we never unpacked from the last move. 

I like to move – it is the best way for me to purge what I own.  I ask myself, “Have I used it since my last
move?”  “Is it necessary or useful?”  “Does it have sentimental value?”  I am learning to treasure possessions in my heart and not in my house.

I have moved again and all the memorabilia I thought I had to keep, I looked at and thought, “The memories are alive in my heart, and I don’t need to keep the actual physical object.”  The real treasure is the relationship of those who gave me the gift or who were a part of the event.  I have come to realize the memories in my heart and the love of relationships are so much more valuable than the actual possession.  Possessions
hold me back but the memories give me hope and challenge me to keep moving and growing and sharing.