"The Lion King" holds answers to all of life's questions.

So I'm still just moping about the clutter in my room and not really doing anything about it. I'm a little overwhelmed. Maybe a lot overwhelmed--I'm so paralyzed I haven't even thrown out the 2 dead plants that are sitting on my shelf. Part of the problem is that I don't want to throw away things with sentimental value. Or things I ever possibly might use again. Prime example: right infront of me on my bookshelf are 8 dried roses and 4 education theory textbooks. I've saved and dried 1 rose from every time Marshall has ever gotten me roses--when I was 17, it seemed like a sweet thing to start doing. And the textbooks. . . I only saved the ones I reallllly liked. . . aka the ones I couldn't sell back. Be real, Rachel: You're not a teacher, and when you are one one day, you're still NEVER going to look at those textbooks again! 

I also started a project yesterday--that will remain unnamed until after our wedding--that made me wonder, "What are memories good for?" Is it biblical to keep mementos in the form of pictures, objects. . . etc? This morning I went to Jeremiah 2 as part of my read-and-study-the-Bible-in-my-lifetime project, and saw these words:

"Thus says the Lord, 'I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. . . What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?'" (Jer. 2:2,5)

And the Lord goes on to talk about how they have forgotten that he brought them out of slavery in Egypt and led them through and out of "the wilderness, a land of deserts and pits and drought and deep darkness"--and he reminds them how he brought them into a plentiful land full of good things for them to enjoy.

I remember from when I read Deuteronomy a few years ago that it stood out to me how often the Lord warned Israel not to forget what he had done for them, and how often he told them about it--he always calls himself "The Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery" as if he wants Israel to define him by that.

One of my co-workers observed recently that with people who grow up in the church, there often isn't a huge need for teaching--there is more of a need for reminding. We forget what God has done and who he is. And when I look back (especially when I read things I wrote/journaled as a teenager--it's painful!), I see that he truly is the Lord who brought me out of slavery, out of a figurative land of deserts and pits and drought and deep darkness. I don't remember that often enough.

So, what about the clutter in my room? Idk; I guess it holds value if it reminds me of what God has done. . . most of it doesn't. Regardless, at this point, there is no room among all the clutter to note the things that God IS doing and WILL do. I think I need to let it go and throw some stuff out. I think I'll go with what Pumba says in The Lion King: "You gotta put your behind in the past." At least in my approach to cluttered spaces.