The Misery of Clutter
And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. (Nehemiah 2:13-14)
WHEN NEHEMIAH TRIED TO MAKE a secret inspection of the Jerusalem wall by night, he had a problem. The ground was so cluttered with the broken wall that the donkey could go no further. The hindrance of clutter has been around a long, long time. Clutter is an arch enemy of order and productivity in every part of life.
When our bodies are cluttered, we are said to be toxic and we need to be detoxified. Clutter hinders our spiritual lives as well as our occupation and home life. We cannot eliminate clutter, but we can reduce it to our advantage. Some people deal with clutter once a year…or not. There’s a humorous side to clutter that blends with a more serious side.
NBC’s weekly radio, Fibber McGee and Molly, (1935-1956) included a regular opening of the family’s cluttered closet. America eagerly awaited by their radios each week for them to open the closet and cherished the loud clatter of things falling out. All Americans had clutter and enjoyed hearing the Fibber McGee version of their own private mess. It didn’t quite make it into the dictionary, but it does get a decent crossover to Wikipedia.
CLUTTER INVADES CLOSETS, garages, shops, offices, cars, trucks, vans and lives. Some people are content to pile their ongoing clutter at their feet while they drive. Others are skilled at tossing cans and cups “somewhere” in the back. Some truckers maintain a private office on the dash of their trucks that resembles “clutter.”
CLUTTER IS UNWANTED AND UNNEEDED and eventually is called garbage. Cities and counties across America struggle with it and have concluded: “Everybody wants it picked up and nobody wants it to be set down.” The latest addition to the clutter community is online buying, especially at Christmas time. Online shopping has generated thousands of piles of product and shipping bags and boxes. Waste management sources are saying it will take at least two months to recover from Christmas clutter.
I'M A SEASONAL "UNCLUTTERER” and Barbara is more sensitive to clutter than I am. I’ll fix it when its time comes. During the year, my main requirement is to be able to get to the computer and have a place for my feet that won’t catch fire when the portable heater is directed there. THE YARD AND GARDEN CLUTTER take priority because people will drive by and talk about you. Inside, we move clutter toward the office because that is the easy way to do it.
AFTER CHRISTMAS, IT'S TOO COLD TO WORK OUTSIDE, so it’s time to unclutter the office. We sort through paper, magazines, books, and cardboard boxes. The plan is to load up our garbage wheelie every Monday and help the garbage man earn his living. (No, the picture is not me in my office.)
I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH A CLEAN DESK, mostly because I never seem to have one. A clean desk may be producing a pile of clutter in the desk drawers or one of the closets. When company comes, let them see your clean desk but don’t let them see the drawers or the closet where you keep the desk clutter.
TO HAVE CLUTTER CLOSURE, one must deposit it to its final resting place, never to be moved again. So, I don’t make a big fuss over a clean desk, ‘till after Christmas. Just for the record, when visitors come, we try to remember to make sure the office door is closed. (That is the worst kind of deception?)
I'M CLUTTERED WITH YEARS and I only need 10% of the books I used to need for studying and writing. Mr. Google has become a member of the family and I don’t need as much paper to look up stuff. A big problem with getting rid of books is that they are like friends and family members. This will be a week for trashing arm loads of magazines and books. Barbara has a lot of books and will soon have more than me. Right now, her books are “treasures “and she gets to keep them until they become “clutter.”
AN EVEN LARGER CLUTTER PROBLEM may be the clutter of promises made, yet unfulfilled. Occupational promises, financial promises, social promises, spiritual promises. A life cluttered with promises is sure to be miserable. The bank is fussy about unfulfilled promises made to them.
IT'S SO EASY TO SCATTER PROMISES all over the place until there’s a backlog of unfulfilled promises. That’s why it’s helpful to write down our promises in a little pocket notebook, and the date we expect to get it done. That may be too binding on your mental health. The main idea is that when we promise something, we should make an honest effort to keep that promise. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. (Ecclesiastes 5:5)
THERE'S THE CLUTTER OF DAYS we wish we could forget. The days we said more than we meant to say, and it destroyed a relationship; the day you lost a job or had a foreclosure or a divorce. This kind of clutter will drag you down. We can forgive everybody in town easier than we can forgive ourselves. It helps to do all we can with people to unclutter broken promises and days of anger and wrong doing. It also needs to be squared away with the Lord.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1John 1:9) Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18) Ω
P.S. I am looking for a special clip art picture of a man in his very cluttered office. Does anyone perchance have a copy of it?
●This article is a rewritten copy of MORNING MINUTE January 19, 2017.
Read Through the Bible in a Year
JANUARY 8, 2018 – MONDAY
A.M. Genesis 20-22 P.M. Matthew 7
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
A Good Verse To Memorize:
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7
Song for Today:
Without Him (Hovie Lister & Quartet Gaither)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxOOHblxh78&index=14&list=PLrQ_9CjH0M3DrNKFiJwWMcXeunA0lU-NB
(Wait several seconds. You may have to delete an ad.)
And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. (Nehemiah 2:13-14)
WHEN NEHEMIAH TRIED TO MAKE a secret inspection of the Jerusalem wall by night, he had a problem. The ground was so cluttered with the broken wall that the donkey could go no further. The hindrance of clutter has been around a long, long time. Clutter is an arch enemy of order and productivity in every part of life.
When our bodies are cluttered, we are said to be toxic and we need to be detoxified. Clutter hinders our spiritual lives as well as our occupation and home life. We cannot eliminate clutter, but we can reduce it to our advantage. Some people deal with clutter once a year…or not. There’s a humorous side to clutter that blends with a more serious side.
NBC’s weekly radio, Fibber McGee and Molly, (1935-1956) included a regular opening of the family’s cluttered closet. America eagerly awaited by their radios each week for them to open the closet and cherished the loud clatter of things falling out. All Americans had clutter and enjoyed hearing the Fibber McGee version of their own private mess. It didn’t quite make it into the dictionary, but it does get a decent crossover to Wikipedia.
CLUTTER INVADES CLOSETS, garages, shops, offices, cars, trucks, vans and lives. Some people are content to pile their ongoing clutter at their feet while they drive. Others are skilled at tossing cans and cups “somewhere” in the back. Some truckers maintain a private office on the dash of their trucks that resembles “clutter.”
CLUTTER IS UNWANTED AND UNNEEDED and eventually is called garbage. Cities and counties across America struggle with it and have concluded: “Everybody wants it picked up and nobody wants it to be set down.” The latest addition to the clutter community is online buying, especially at Christmas time. Online shopping has generated thousands of piles of product and shipping bags and boxes. Waste management sources are saying it will take at least two months to recover from Christmas clutter.
I'M A SEASONAL "UNCLUTTERER” and Barbara is more sensitive to clutter than I am. I’ll fix it when its time comes. During the year, my main requirement is to be able to get to the computer and have a place for my feet that won’t catch fire when the portable heater is directed there. THE YARD AND GARDEN CLUTTER take priority because people will drive by and talk about you. Inside, we move clutter toward the office because that is the easy way to do it.
AFTER CHRISTMAS, IT'S TOO COLD TO WORK OUTSIDE, so it’s time to unclutter the office. We sort through paper, magazines, books, and cardboard boxes. The plan is to load up our garbage wheelie every Monday and help the garbage man earn his living. (No, the picture is not me in my office.)
I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH A CLEAN DESK, mostly because I never seem to have one. A clean desk may be producing a pile of clutter in the desk drawers or one of the closets. When company comes, let them see your clean desk but don’t let them see the drawers or the closet where you keep the desk clutter.
TO HAVE CLUTTER CLOSURE, one must deposit it to its final resting place, never to be moved again. So, I don’t make a big fuss over a clean desk, ‘till after Christmas. Just for the record, when visitors come, we try to remember to make sure the office door is closed. (That is the worst kind of deception?)
I'M CLUTTERED WITH YEARS and I only need 10% of the books I used to need for studying and writing. Mr. Google has become a member of the family and I don’t need as much paper to look up stuff. A big problem with getting rid of books is that they are like friends and family members. This will be a week for trashing arm loads of magazines and books. Barbara has a lot of books and will soon have more than me. Right now, her books are “treasures “and she gets to keep them until they become “clutter.”
AN EVEN LARGER CLUTTER PROBLEM may be the clutter of promises made, yet unfulfilled. Occupational promises, financial promises, social promises, spiritual promises. A life cluttered with promises is sure to be miserable. The bank is fussy about unfulfilled promises made to them.
IT'S SO EASY TO SCATTER PROMISES all over the place until there’s a backlog of unfulfilled promises. That’s why it’s helpful to write down our promises in a little pocket notebook, and the date we expect to get it done. That may be too binding on your mental health. The main idea is that when we promise something, we should make an honest effort to keep that promise. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. (Ecclesiastes 5:5)
THERE'S THE CLUTTER OF DAYS we wish we could forget. The days we said more than we meant to say, and it destroyed a relationship; the day you lost a job or had a foreclosure or a divorce. This kind of clutter will drag you down. We can forgive everybody in town easier than we can forgive ourselves. It helps to do all we can with people to unclutter broken promises and days of anger and wrong doing. It also needs to be squared away with the Lord.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1John 1:9) Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18) Ω
P.S. I am looking for a special clip art picture of a man in his very cluttered office. Does anyone perchance have a copy of it?
●This article is a rewritten copy of MORNING MINUTE January 19, 2017.
Read Through the Bible in a Year
JANUARY 8, 2018 – MONDAY
A.M. Genesis 20-22 P.M. Matthew 7
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
A Good Verse To Memorize:
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7
Song for Today:
Without Him (Hovie Lister & Quartet Gaither)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxOOHblxh78&index=14&list=PLrQ_9CjH0M3DrNKFiJwWMcXeunA0lU-NB
(Wait several seconds. You may have to delete an ad.)
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