I've made a mental note that grand adventures like 7 are probably not ideal ventures to undertake when you are pregnant, praying through future job and childcare arrangements, and also have a little child (or more) running around your home. Not that this has been impossible... just hard to stick to. Or maybe I am just easily distracted.
Clothing month came and went, and while there were days I hated the few shirts I had to select from, this month was really not that different from being pregnant and have a limited wardrobe anyway. In many ways, I entered the month already feeling the convictions of placing too much importance on appearance (not that I don't still struggle with it and bow to the temptation of retail therapy from time to time). At the same time, this season of life for us doesn't lend itself to having a gigantic clothing selection with designer labels. Frankly, I haven't stepped foot in an Ann Taylor or Nordstrom for many many months. I shop at Target a lot, where I can also pick up a new shirt, shampoo, some organizing bins, and dog food without having to make multiple trips (which require the loading and unloading of a toddler from the car each time). We're already in a season of trying to simplify and reduce, for the sake of sanity.
I did read a really interesting article that Jen Hatmaker (author of 7) posted on facebook: The Afterlife of Cheap Clothes. It made me think twice about just what to do. Clearly simply cleaning out my clothes closet of the things I don't really need and dumping the pile at Goodwill is not necessarily the automatic answer. They have an excess already, too. So instead, I've been thinking more specifically about who I can give these items to. For example, I think we're at a place where we can give away all the baby girl clothes our daughter has outgrown. Instead of Goodwill, I think I'll contact the Pregnancy Resource Center and see if they have need, or even ask around amongst my friends to see if they know of anything expecting a baby girl who might want some almost good as new hand me downs.
So that's clothes.
July is possessions, which is one I had eagerly anticipated and still am hopeful for. But, two back to back out of town weekends, plus the holiday, plus, well, life, and my hands and feet are still not yet in step with my heart in this area. My goal had been to go through our house looking for the items that truly are excessive. Games we never play. Extra toiletry bags for travel. Toys we've outgrown and won't need for number 2. Books I'll never really read again. That mango cutter that sure is a neat idea but never seems to work correctly for me (the 1 or 2 times a year I actually buy a mango and remember I have the mango cutter). I also had the idea of gathering the items and selling them in a garage sale, with the intent of donating the profit. That has actually evolved into what will likely be a church-wide garage sale, with the proceeds going to the orphanage in Haiti that I served at along with others from my church in the fall of 2011.
Writing this all down, it sounds just as tiring and uninspired as I currently feel. I suppose some days and weeks are like that, though, and truly, if the things I've been thinking and praying about are a movement of God in my life, I suppose I should expect some discouragement and wind-sucked-from-my-sails feelings. Wherever God is moving, isn't the Enemy taking special note? I've never been one to really go there in my interpretation of events and my feelings, but the more my eyes are opened to the spiritual truths behind every day life, the more I see how the Enemy does not want truth spoken, realized, lived. Guess I need to polish my armor a little bit (Ephesians 6), and pray for endurance.
Wouldn't you know it, this was the reading in Psalms for today's Bible reading:
Psalm 143:7-8
Answer me quickly, O Lord!
My spirit fails!
Hide not your face from me,
lest I be like those who go down to the pit.Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love,
for in you I trust.
Make me know the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.
Amen.
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