Do you tend to hoard? It’s a difficult issue for some people. Their living quarters have closets over-stuffed with shirts and shoes, rooms bulging with purchased goods with no tidy place to store them, garages overflowing with tools, appliances, boxes, and gadgets that leave no room to park a car. What to do?
One remedy for hoarding is gratitude for God’s blessings already in hand.
God’s blessing are not material things we buy at the store. God’s blessings come to us in a spiritual form and are received through spiritual sense.
For instance, the ability to be happy without buying a shirt we don’t need is a divine blessing. It’s a recognition that we are whole and complete beings, the way God made us, whether we have that extra shirt or not.
Trust is another blessing from God. It’s confidence that God always gives us what we need when we need it. We do not need to store up extra material stuff to ensure that God has us covered at a future date. God always has us covered. Trust in this truth brings profound peace into one’s life, and balance too.
What we have spiritually with God is infinitely more valuable and desirable to possess than any amount of material goods.
When we feel whole in Spirit, we do not see empty holes in our life that need to be filled by excess material purchases. We find spiritual happiness—the best kind of happiness to have!
The temptation to hoard material things melts away as we savor the spiritual things we already possess. The best possessions in life are not things we buy at the store. They are the heavenly blessings coming freely from God!
Hoard less and be grateful more. It’s a healthy trade-off.
“God will generously provide all you need” (II Cor. 9.8, NLT)
“Spiritual” storehouses comes to thought……
Cleanse thought…..
Very interesting, Evan. Thank you!!
Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? Luke 12: 24
It is a relief to read this message and consider it! Many thanks.
John 14…’ In my Fathers house are many mansions”
Thank goodness our true home…the Kingdom of Heaven is already filled with divine inspiration and Truth….brings to mind this quote from S and H in this weeks lesson..’pilgrim on earth, thy home is heaven; stranger thou art the guest of God.’
Thank you Evan…… maybe this underlines the difference between want and need in my case❣️
I don’t have a hoarding problem, but a practitioner once said to me that we don’t take our money or material things with us when we pass on. It’s a material sense of life in matter to hold onto material things/possessions. All we need is a better understanding that life is spiritual – things into thoughts. So, I will work on not “hoarding” wrong intrusive thoughts today. Thank you, Evan.
Thank you Carrie for the reminder , we definitely don’t need Any material substance when we leave the body;
Like the wise practitioner said , a better understanding
That Life is spiritual and that our present earthly life
Has nothing to do with the material senses that seem
Sometimes take over, And wanted to be in charge.
“Trust is another blessing from God. It’s confidence that God always gives us what we need when we need it. We do not need to store up extra material stuff to ensure that God has us covered at a future date. God always has us covered. Trust in this truth brings profound peace into one’s life, and balance too.”
Just the thought I need in my spiritual storehouse as I continue a decluttering journey begun months ago. Thanks so much, Evan, for all your Spiritview messages! They are a timely and uplifting start for every one of your readers’ days!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbZ9ALkE3Wg
I LOVE this song. but I would sing, “GIVE it away…”
Someone may need all that stuff we think we need to hold on to!
Everything has it’s rightful place, but if we’re tripping over it, or it’s falling all over you when you open the closet, it may not be your place!
Thank you for sharing, Diane.
Thank you Evan!
Considering closets full, which overflow, an explosion every time the closet is opened, is clearly a clue. Pick it up, get it to the recycling shop/store/center close by, so they will spread it to the neediest coming there, to re-use. Please recycle, trash around the world is full and in Argentina it is burned in their barren desert.
I was thinking, too, chilesands, about reusing and recycling and how it
is good to use wisdom in our choices of what is important in life. My Mom,
so many years ago, was the first “reuser” (example: sending us to school
with a sandwich in a reused bread bag) and that reused tinsel on the
Christmas tree every year (that was probably 20 years old!) LOL
She was thrifty, but taught respect for everything and in a world of
waste and overconsumption of the “material”, the spiritual lessons in it
all were/are helpful in keeping a balance with being wise.
Beautiful song and a poetic approach; Abbey Lincoln
Has a unique approcg and interpretation.
Thank you
“Can hoarding be healed?” by Ginger Mack Emden:
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/2ns05zx84w
I always try to donate any excess items to my local thrift store. There is such a need out there that we can bless others by our excess. What blesses one blesses all. So give of what you have freely. It will bless you too!
That is a great thing to do, Adrienne. I do that, too. In looking around the house today
to see what I can “let go”, there are quite a few things I really don’t need and someone
else might be able to use more. Sometimes it is tempting to hold on to stuff because it
“might come in handy…some day”. And of course there is the mm thought that comes
that as soon as you get rid of it, there will be a need for it. That happened before I had
moved here. I had a cabinet for a bathroom that someone was getting rid of that I had
stored for many years. When I had a tag sale with a friend, there were lookers, but very
little was sold. We ended up putting the whole pile with a free sign and every bit of it
was taken, as soon as we put it all out by her driveway by two gentlemen who looked
like they could really use the money, so it was wonderful to see it go.
When I moved, the cabinet that I had always liked and was now gone, would have
been perfect for the bathroom here. The temptation was to feel badly about it, but then
I thought, no – it is just a “thing”. A short while later I happened to be with a friend in a
thrift shop and sitting in a dark corner, hardly visible, was a much more useful and actually beautiful same type of cabinet that fit in the place ideally. It was craft fully made, very inexpensive, made of real wood and was perfect for the need.
so glad to hear that the need was filled, as that is what I need to focus on, as I do have a difficulty letting go of things that maybe useful one day – even though they haven’t been useful for months or years. So yeah, trusting that every need is met, and if not this for me then something better at the right time. God always supplies.
Thank you Evan!
Having grown up with parents who used to always be prepared and not have to
depend on others, with power outages, storms, etc. the mindset has always been
to be prepared for anything. Only buying when needed, on sale or for a good cause
at a thrift shop or tag sale, but mostly the “things” are treasures that were given me with
love and thoughtfulness and make home more cozy, as each item has a wonderful
story of the giver behind it (mostly passed on now to another realm). The items =
cherished “thoughts” of those sweet givers of love. I have seen many “houses” of
customers that were more like museums, sterile and uninviting and without a
“home”y feel. Not to criticize them, but cozy, comfortable is more my style, surrounded
by treasures of Love.
But today’s message reminds me, I must get to that “clutter” room.
Thanks Evan, just what I needed today..
diane w. a., Thank you for sharing this delightful and relevant song. Loved it! Especially, “you can never lose a thing if it belongs to you.”
Thanks, Diane, for the link you provided. It was interesting and
inspiring.
I have been a collector of “vintage “ items for quite some time, things that remind me of family members, my youth etc. I recently had to donate to a wonderful place that will have a vintage sale in August. I have enjoyed these items for many years, but time to let go!
Thank you for these wonderful words and thoughts from all.
Thank you for this article/perspective about Hoarding. TRUST is a big one for me overall, and I’m excited to trust God more as I learn more about God and CS.
Wow! I love the beautiful, pristine uncluttered room. Thanks, Evan.
Thank you very much, dear Evan for the beautiful spiritual truths you are giving us! I love them very much!
Certainly I have to declutter the house my sister and I inherited from our parents. But I live in this home and my sister lives with her family somewhere else. But many things and the furnitures are still there from my parents. And I am about to give away nice items to good friends, childrens books and DVDs to the children of my nephews, or am selling via Ebay.
Evan gave us so wonderful truths like “One remedy for hoarding is Gratitude for God’s blessings already in hand.” Oh yes, I’m grateful for the endless good God gave me already.
And “God’s blessings come to us in spiritual form and are received through spiritual sense.”
And “Trust is another blessing from God. It’s confidence that God gives us all we need, when we need it!”
Thanks a lot “J” for the article, and thanks Diane for that very lovely song, so beautiful!!
Such blessings do we get with this wonderful SpiritView Blog – am grateful for that!!♡
How nice that friendly and orderly and clean room in today’s foto!♡
It just came to my Mind that sometimes I must also declutter my thinking about me and also about my neighbor. I will never forget that I and my neighbor are spiritual, loving and friendly ideas of a perfect and loving God! Indeed we have a lot to do as also Mrs. Eddy says in her healing writings!♡