Declutter

January has always been my time to declutter my house. The process of taking down all the Christmas decorations ignites a purging desire in my soul. Before I know it, I find myself driving to the local Goodwill with a carload of garbage bags, filled with clothing and household items. And as I drive away from the donation center, I feel an overwhelming sense of satisfaction. For me, less has always been more. Mess equals stress in my brain.

This time of physical decluttering helps free up my mind and allows me to make room for what God is calling me to do in this new year. I hear God calling me to purge my mind from my electronic clutter as well. This pandemic introduced me to the world of binging shows on Netflix and I have added Snapchat and Tik Tok to my clutter as well.  My phone has become attached to my body, and I find myself routinely checking it as often as I blink my eyes. Sadly, this appears to be the norm for our world, and it quite frankly scares me. 

Romans 12:2:

Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind and by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Paul in Romans warns us to not be conformed by this world. And these days, many unhealthy, wordly messages are poisoning the internet. Therefore, I have decided to be more cautious about the content I follow and reduce my screen time.  Many of you know if you own an iPhone that you can use settings to reduce your screentime. To do this, you go to settings and select screen time and you will be able to choose app limits schedule downtime.

This is a start for me, and obviously, I can easily ignore the alarms and change the settings at any moment. But like any change in your life, you must start somewhere. I pray that along with these limits, I can seek out other ways to fill my time with God’s will. Prayer, meditation, reading, working out, volunteering my time, or starting a new hobby must be better than staring at my phone, right?

Gracious God,

Give me the strength to declutter my mind by developing healthy screentime habits and allow me to make room for your will each day.  Amen.