GOODWILL OR TRASH!
Throughout my life, I have experienced many things that have brought pleasure and also grief. This week we have talked a about the pleasures of life through accumulating things and memories. Today I want to touch on one aspect of grief! Coming from a large family I have experienced many of my siblings dying along with my Mother and Father. Recently, my sister Jewel passed away after many months of the realization of illness, discouragement, pain and then the ebbing away of her life. When it came time to go through her things, several of us came together to help her children do this unpleasant task.

Shortly after we began I soon realized that a long and active life, soon became a matter of ‘Goodwill or trash’. I knew how Jewel felt about some of her things because I too am there in my life. To the naked eye they are viewed as good enough to be used again, so they went to Goodwill. Some were viewed as; " why was she keeping this?" and into the trash it would go.

I took some things as mementos for my children, for myself and others. Some had chips, some were faded and some wondered why I would want that. Many times someone would yell, Janie do you want this? I would respond with ‘okay’! I didn’t even know what it was, but I couldn’t bring myself to say; "No, I don’t want what Jewel had loved and kept all these years".
The reality of it all is that these were her memories and her treasures. She was not here to appreciate them any longer and decisions were needed. Jewel would have understood that!

I didn’t like taking what was left of Jewel’s life and reducing it to Goodwill or trash. I didn’t like handling her precious memories as though they meant nothing. I didn’t like losing yet another sibling and placing her on my memory wall. However, this comes to us all!

I went home and began to look at my memories and treasures. I have begun to exercise ‘Goodwill or trash’ and I will continue to do that until I too leave this place for my heavenly home. I can do this! Whatever is left, my loved ones will already know that I will expect the rest to go to Goodwill or trash with my blessings and they will be able to do it without remorse or second thoughts. They will know that I just had to keep them a little bit longer. I expect to be placed upon the wall of memories!

When God asks that we lay up our treasures in heaven, He is asking us to put Him first in our memory banks. "Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another; the Lord heeded and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who feared the Lord and thought on His name"; Malachi 3:16. As I search God’s word, I am more and more convinced that God gave us memories of things to help us to remember. I am convinced that God can easily cleanse us and remember our sins no more. I am convinced God created a memory book full of the names of those who serve Him and are obedient to His word. He remembers them!

Laying up our treasures on earth end up at Goodwill or trash but God’s bank is open 24/7 to house the treasures we have laid up in heaven. Wanting things is okay! Keeping things is okay! Letting things go is okay! "And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus"; Philippians 4:7. Jane Ann