To Keep or not to Keep
The beginning of the New Year often lends itself to purging. There’s something about taking down the Christmas décor that fuels an urgency to simultaneously declutter closets. Unfortunately, my clutter hasn’t exited at the pace or frequency of my compounded Christmases.
Every season had its excuses—the year when three grandchildren were born within six days, the years when separate sets of twin grandchildren were toddlers, the decade when eleven grandchildren were born, the long stretch when my precious mom and mother-in-law both required extra care-giving—all of it just life, the beautiful, yet often demanding, Matriarchal life.
An hour of cleaning out here and clearing out there, in-between aforementioned activities, hasn’t quite cut it. It’s not that I haven’t tried. Enticing sentiments with pictures attached have been sent to our adult kids in spurts. “Anyone want this?” “This was your paternal Grandfather’s mother’s.” “These were our wedding dishes—barely used.” Most of it’s been met with respectful (but potential hidden eye-rolls) “No Thanks!” “Thanks for checking!”
Our Millennial-generation kids for the most part, aren’t keeping things. They’re rarely allured by Great-great-grandmother’s dishes and Great-grandmother’s ceramic vases—name engraved and all. It seems they grasped the “from dust to dust” truth long before their elders, and they’re pretty adamant about it.
Genesis 3:19 reminds us “for dust you are and to dust you will return” (NIV). Not only will we exit this world possession-less, it means that somebody (a.k.a. our kids) will be tasked with going through the gems left behind—whether it’s a box in the corner of the nursing home or a jam-packed house filled with fifty years of acquired stuff.
It’s not only the tangible books, cards, letters, photos, tools, clothes, trophies, medals, holiday decorations, and the like that are left to be sorted. For our part, as Boomers and Xers and every other generation that precedes another, we need to think beyond tokens and trinkets to either be tossed or treasured.
God’s Word speaks frequently and clearly to the “to keep or not to keep” dilemma. We’re directed to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” while “keeping our eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:1 NIV, Hebrews 12:2 CSB, emphasis mine). Similarly, speaking of King Asa, 2 Chronicles 14:3-4 tells us that “He took away the foreign altars and the high places and broke down the pillars and cut down the Asherim and commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to keep the law and the commandment” (ESV, emphasis mine).
God and His ways are for sure what’s worth keeping. It’s a pretty simple, although grit-requiring method: Habitual sin patterns to the PURGE pile. An enduring faith to the KEEP pile.
When it comes down to it, after getting the all-clear from our family to toss, letting go of the old letter jacket, the knitted scarf, the antique piece, or Grandpa’s old fishing motor is OK. While our great-grandchildren might occasionally think of us upon digging up a knick-knack passed from storage room to storage room, more important is that they think of HIM at every juncture of their lives. When they’re mindful of the Lord day-by-day, they can endure every trial and purposefully live out God’s purposes in their life.
Let’s keep and pass down the one thing that’s an assured blessing and not a burden. Let’s keep the faith, SO THAT we can pass it along. May we say like Paul in 2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (NIV, emphasis mine). Our legacy is not in the attic treasure box—it’s in the Treasured One.
Kay Fuller (a.k.a. Grammy Kay)