Does It Nourish My Soul?

​

 

I am in the process of decluttering my house.  There is one question I ask as I hold things and decide what to keep and what to lose.  The question is this, Does it nourish my soul? Some things that do not nourish my soul I end up keeping anyway.  Bills and cleaning supplies do not nourish my soul, but ignoring bills and the need to clean could affect my soul in a negative way.  

Some of what I hold was perhaps nourishing at one time, but is not nourishing now.  The outfit I wore when I got engaged, which does not fit as comfortably now. The kitchen vase that dates itself.  Some of what I hold has lost its usefulness. Storage baskets with broken handles. Kitchen containers that have lost their lids.  The 4 legged turned 3 legged stool in my bedroom closet. I ask the question, Does it nourish my soul? because if I chase it down, I usually find an answer.  Clutter does not nourish my soul. Brokenness does not nourish my soul., and while our souls long for breathing room, the space we inhabit perpetually gravitates toward overload. 

 

Does it nourish my soul?  I ask it when decluttering my house, and also while attempting to declutter my calendar.  An appointment for a root canal, like my cleaning supplies, is not a soul nourisher, but it is necessary.  But what about the obligations I have created, the standards I have set for myself as far as what must be on the calendar in order to experience a “full” life?  Sometimes I realize that rather than making life full, the overload is making life empty.  

 

Does it nourish my soul?  Most importantly I ask this question in my quiet time as I attempt with the help of the Holy Spirit to declutter my heart and my mind.  Jealousy, doubt, anger, pride, and the like so easily welcome themselves in, no purchase necessary. The continual decluttering is necessary.    

 

Sometimes it is not so much what we have, but what we do not have that nourishes us.  The process of decluttering is never over but it does get less overwhelming with time.  Practice will not make us perfect (only Jesus can do that) but practice will result in fewer things getting in between us and Him.  As far as we know, Jesus never owned a home, never had a steady paycheck, and was certainly not preoccupied with what other people thought of Him.  Still, He welcomed people in, gave more than He received, and His is the Name above all names. Less is more is true, but only if you choose less of a lesser thing for more of a better thing.       

 

Things, thoughts, spaces, places...ask yourself - Does this nourish my soul?

​

​