Friday, December 30, 2016

Seeking to Simplify

   Whenever a new year starts to roll around I tend to start reflecting on life and thinking about how things are going. What areas appear to be doing well and where can I improve? There does always seem to be a lot of room for growth but at the same time I feel blessed and thankful to see improvement in some areas too.

  This last year was busy. Sometimes it was overwhelmingly busy. We made it but I don't want to repeat those feelings of being overwhelmed. Our schedule can get busy to be sure and I am working to watch that carefully but I feel like a lot of the feelings of being overwhelmed came from the amount of stuff and clutter. Not just physical clutter but also things like a full e-mail inbox, endless picture files on our computer (that cause it to work slower) and so forth.

   So this coming year I really want to focus on getting rid of excess. We have been super abundantly blessed and I am SO thankful for our God who provides our every need but I don't think being thankful means I need to keep everything that He has given me. I think perhaps at times we are given things so that we can pass them on to somebody else. Maybe we can sell them and use the money in a way that would glorify Him.
This has been a slow week around here as all of my music students were on vacation and so I started to work on going through things and reducing the amount of stuff we own. It has been so fun to make some good headway in this project. I still have a lot I want to do however and so I will continue to work on it.

  Do you have excess stuff in your life too? Would you like to join me in cleaning out our houses? I am planning on setting some goals (starting Monday) for bringing less stuff in and taking stuff our of our home. It would be fun to know there are others doing the same thing and encouraging one another.

  So, Lord willing I will get another post with my (and yours too, if you like) challenge on Monday morning and then we can get to work!

   Meanwhile I will be doing some more cleaning and organizing (and we are making me a new built in desk - I can't wait to show you!!) and then we have a party to celebrate our new year.

  Happy New Year to all of you!!!

8 comments:

Mrs. Chrissy T said...

Hi Abbi! I can relate to all you shared. I would love to see and read about your challenge.

Brenda said...

I love this plan Abbi! I look forward to your posts. I have a storage unit I plan on going through and hopefully weeding through some things and organizing. This Florida lady loves the pictures! :) Happy new year to you and your precious family!

Cheryl said...

We are a few years in to our minimizing journey. God has brought us a long, long way. We are now down to a storage unit and are going through box by box, item by item, literally, and we are analyzing every, single thing, seeking God's will as to whether or not He wants us to keep it. It is a calling and coincides with our quest to know Christ and to live life eternity-focused and not fixated on the things of this world. It is one of the most liberating things we have ever done, and we feel so much lighter. God is so faithful! I wish you much success in your simplifying!

Abbi said...

Chrissy, I look forward to having you join me! :-)

Brenda, I hope it can be encouraging to you as you clean out your storage unit!! I am glad you enjoyed my snow pictures.

Cheryl, Thanks for your encouragement and your great reminder of some good reasons to simplify and not hang on to things!

Amy and Mark said...

Yes! I look forward to more posts on this subject! We are cleaning out here as well. I have set the first Saturday in February as a "Junk Exchange" Day with family and friends. It will be the 5th time I have hosted one and it always really motivates me to clean-out things as I know one of them might really enjoy or be able to use some of my things.

Abbi said...

Amy, That is a really fun idea to have a day for exchanging junk. I have thought something like that might be cool but never got around to organizing it. I did organize a clothing exchange once but I like the idea of broadening what you could bring. I look forward to hearing more about how it goes!

Jodie said...

I would love to join you in this. We have so much stuff! The hardest thing for me is finding the time and energy to do it. But being 4 months pregnant had certainly motivated me to get things done around here...although energy levels don't always match my motivation unfortunately.

Abbi said...

Jodie, I am glad to have you join me! I am hoping to post about it every Tuesday. I have been having a lot of fun with it so far. I do remember those pregnancy days of feeling like doing a lot of "nesting" but also how tired you can be. Hopefully you can make progress during the times you do feel energetic. :-)

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