Being Fruitful

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I am not considering it failing if I don’t write a blog every day in October, even though this technically is a writing challenge for me.  I am also using it to challenge myself to choose myself- so along with productivity and writing, I am choosing things that make me feel productive and give me an overall sense of well-being and of being successful and productive.  I am also working on some other writing that I am not sharing on the blog, plus I am in a bible study titled “The Intentional Woman, A guide to experiencing the Power of Your Story.” It is wonderful and I am so excited to be learning how to share my story and my testimony to better help others, and it requires homework and writing and reading my bible so when I am able to get to it every day I count that as part of this challenge, too. 

When I first accepted this challenge I had no idea what I would focus on.  I prayed on it and tried to not really think about it, so that maybe the idea would come from God and not from myself.  Since I have been struggling at home as of late with running around in circles and not completing much, even though I try and work hard, I have been reading in scripture for inspiration and guidance. This is what I have found: Colossians 3:23-25 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Have I been working with all my heart? Some days yes, but some days no. The truth hurts, but that is the truth. Why I am struggling so much to be productive? I am struggling because I am side tracked constantly. Some of that is no fault of my own, but some of it is because I allow things to interfere.  I take breaks from my work to check Face Book, email, and Instagram I like to have the television on in the background to entertain me, but it really is distracting me. Other times it is my kids needing something, or I choose to spend time with them instead of finishing my task, I think those are good distractions and mostly acceptable.  Proverbs 11:30 tells us, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.” Jesus says in Matthew 15:19  “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. “  When we have decided to follow Jesus and live to please him, our lives will be fruitful (productive) naturally. Except for when it isn’t. I am just a little overwhelmed with my current responsibilities, but God has shown me that and how to get back on the right path and fix the productivity problem in my life.  I know what conviction is, and I like to ignore it when it isn’t fun or convenient, but the great thing about God is that he keeps on nudging you until you listen. So the TV is off, and the phone is setting on the charger, and the computer will be shut as soon as I upload this blog. Once I am productive for the day, I will reward myself with either a Facebook scroll or a recorded television show. I am not getting rid of my TV, or my social networks, I am just putting some boundaries on them for myself. Boundaries are a gift from God, too!

I am trying to get my house a little more organized and simplify and get rid of the clutter, no small task with two kids (that want to keep everything!). We are all making choices and deciding what is really important and what we really need.  OK, I totally admit here that we have WAY MORE than we could ever need, and we are spoiled rotten. But we are trying to live a little more simple, and below our means rather than above it. That way we can use the extra to help others. Some of these projects include cleaning out the kids books and toys, all the closets, kitchen cabinets, chest of drawers, laundry room, and other hidden areas that I just tend to ignore and act like they aren’t there and then they sit full and wasteful and years later I go to clean it out and I am like “Well, we could have used that years ago but now it is useless to us.” You guys have some areas like this, too, right? It isn’t just me? Don’t get me wrong, we aren’t hoarders or anything, but we just tend to bring in more than we take out and I want to reverse that.  I have been trying to work on this for a few months now.  Yesterday I spent the day cleaning out the hall coat closet. We use this only in the winter (when we need coats), and we used to use it for our shoes but we had old shoes in there that either didn’t fit, were worn out, or out of style and so we tended to not use it for most of our shoes anymore. I managed to fill two large garbage bags with old coats, hats, gloves, mittens, scarfs, and shoes. I also had several winter items that Harper has outgrown that I am giving to a baby in the family that will fit into all of this winter. I am so happy to rid my house of all of this just sitting in my coat closet collecting dust and taking up space, so wasteful.

If you are still with me for this very boring blog post, here are the pictures of the closet.  I forgot to take a real before, sorry. As I was working it dawned on me that this is productivity and deserved a mention.

 Pile of coats-some we kept and some we are donating.

 The mess of shoes that we basically do not wear anymore. Gone now!

 Finished closet. Filled only with shoes, coats, and a basket of hats and gloves that we actually wear.

 Top shelve, I found room to also store our air mattress here, plus my knee brace and a pair of boots.  All of this had previously been in my closet in our room, so this frees up space in there! WIN!