Continuing on our topic of simplicity from the Selah conference.

The speaker said, “Ladies a seed has to die so it can grow.” Your collectible self must die down and allow something else to mature. Meaning our need for order and space must be the final end result from the purging and cleaning process. She said, “It is a process that cannot have shortcuts. In order for you to have a de-cluttered home and space that is free the desire for more stuff has to die and be put in its rightful place.” (this is not a direct quote I often say things need to be put in their rightful place)

All this has led me to think about and question whether there is a real meaning behind my different collections. This tea dessert set was given to me by my grandmother. She had a set of six royal doulton Old Country Rose dessert plates and she asked me if I wanted them. Of course our house is decorated in a rose theme and these were beautiful and they were hers and when she asked me I said YES. This particular set is not made any more. When it was time for us to purchase china which was a wish of mine for holidays we stayed in the same theme of these dishes instead of having a hodge podge collection. The final count in the china hutch is a set of 16 thinking that each ‘child’ would get a service of 8 if something were to happen to me or us. If you know anything about this collection it is not cheap. Most were purchased on sale… some were not. There are creamers, gravy boats, platters and even salt and pepper shakers for the table has to be complete when set for the holidays. This is my first example of an emotional collection I could come up with as I process this topic of collecting. The speaker asked us to search out the reasons why we collect the ‘stuff’ and explore the emotional attachments to them. The emotional attachment is: grandma gave them to me. I have very few keepsakes from her so this is an important keepsake ‘collection’ to hold onto. When I told grandma what we did after we purchased more to match the set she gave us she became very angry saying, “If I knew you were going to spend that much money on a plate I would never have given them to you.” The question after she blasted me with the words was ‘why would it matter to her?’ I chose to purchase more.

It was not about grandma’s gift it was about me.

The speaker said, “Ladies your soul growth begins when you actively embrace yourself. Who you are and who you want to become.” She said, “Real control is knowing who is at the center. When we let God intercede and bring order into our lives everything will fall into place.”

The key is to know why you collect and what is behind the collections. She said, “It is a prayer of healing, life change, reorder, surrender, obedience and love.” I will continue to press forward in the topic of collections for a short season and as I do is it ok to ask for prayer in this process?

This may become more emotional than originally intended.