Finders Keepers … ?

          I have an ugly habit of keeping everything – old recipes clipped from magazines, random craft patterns that I might want to try to make one day, books, old calendars, old receipts from 2015, writing magazines, insurance explanation of benefits statements. You name it, I’ve collected it.

         Along with that tendency comes an irrational need to purge every now and then. That urge to purge hits me every decade or so. Then I’ll sift through mounds of boxes and totes filled with paper and such to pull out what I think I still need to keep, and then I shred the rest, which is great for our compost pile. All that shredded paper, plus a little goat manure, our table scraps and some compost starter and we’ve got some awesome compost to supplement our garden and flower beds.

          When I say that I sift through mounds of paper, I mean just that. I’m not talking about opening a box, seeing what’s inside and deciding to burn the contents. I mean, I go through each piece of paper and decide: “Do I want to keep this, or should I keep this? Should I shred it or throw it in the trash? Is this something someone else might want or need at any point in the future?”

          It can be an exhausting process.

          I was recently going through one of the “2016” boxes and found all kinds of cards relating to my two younger sons’ graduation parties. My youngest had graduated from the Ohio Virtual Academy, an online, free, public school that worked very well for him. My middle son had just earned his GED. Both boys were planning to attend Hocking College to study Eco-Tourism and Adventure Travel.

          I found a card from my mother (who died in January) to one of the recent graduates and I thought the sentiment was so cool, that I decided to save it for all posterity — instead of shredding the card and committing it to a life as a home for worms in our garden.

          The card features the title “Top Ten Reasons To Trust God With Your Future.” Now, knowing my sons, I’m sure the sentiment on the card wasn’t appreciated as much as the cash inside it, but I appreciate it and hope that one day each young man will develop a relationship with our Creator. If the word “God” gives you a shudder or negative reaction, insert a word that aligns more with your beliefs — Spirit, Universe, Creator, Universal Intelligence, or whatever works for you.

          So here goes:

10. God planned your future before you got here.
9. God offers 24-hour support — good for a lifetime.
8. God’s training manual is the best-selling book of all time.
7. God has a great reputation for working miracles.
6. God forgives all your mistakes — no questions asked.
5. God controls the entire universe and everything in it.
4. God has an inside track on your bosses — God created them.
3. God’s rewards are character-driven — not performance based.
2. God has an “all-you-need” guarantee so you never have to worry about things like food and clothing.

           And the No. 1 Reason to trust God with your future?

1. God used one element to design it — God’s unconditional love for you.

          Now these may seem a bit simplistic, meant for children. And I could come up with some qualifications for many of them, but sometimes God needs to talk to us like we’re children. Sometimes, we just don’t get the message and it needs to be broken down into small bites for us.

          I think the bottom line here is that we need to have faith — faith that we have a genuine purpose; faith that all the pain and confusion of life will be worth it in the end; faith that something out in the Universe is pulling for us, cheering us on.

          I often liken faith to a knitting or crochet pattern that I’ve never followed before. I have a picture of what the finished piece should look like, but when I start, I really have no idea if the directions on the page will give me the item pictured with the pattern. It’s only after I read and knit and make mistakes and then rip it out (called “frogging” because you rip it, rip it, rip it) and knit it again until I finish that I realize “Yep, the pattern really did lead me to knit a bunny.”

          That’s faith. Following a “pattern” that you believe with your whole being that the directions lead you to the future you crave.

          All of our sacred texts contain those patterns. For me, the Bible is my pattern book, my direction to achieve an eternal life. You may believe that a different pattern book leads you to paradise. The directions you follow aren’t nearly as important as the journey those directions take you on.

          Enjoy your journey and have faith that the Universe wants what’s best for you. Even if that journey takes you through boxes and boxes of old papers that eventually become worm food.

Until next week,

Susie from Stix-N-Stonez.com