Letting Go

By Skye - Her blog is Neathering Our Fest. You can read more about her here. You can find all posts by Skye here.

what are you holding on to that is keeping you from enjoying life?

i tend to on occasion sometimes... OK. i am a neat freak. i like for the laundry to be folded and put away as soon as the dryer goes off. i like to dry the dishes and put them away. i have to clean off the dining room table every day when get home from work. when we moved to louisiana, it took me approximately four days to unpack the entire house because i cannot stand to live out of boxes.

disorganization and general clutter gives me hives.

but when i decided to give this handmade business stuff a go, i had to learn how to let things go. my dining room table became my studio for painting and putting all the paint away every night just got to be a hassle. so i embraced the fact that this new adventure might mean a messy dining room table.

other things i have embraced in this process: piled up laundry, a few dishes left in the sink for more than twenty-four hours, and the remotes not put back in the remote basket after our nightly ritual of scrubs on netflix.

but when those former big things started to become little things, and when i quit worrying about the little things, i started to see some growth in my business. i started to realize that leaving a bowl in the sink would not be the end of the world. i started to focus more on things like building relationships with friends and people online and less on religiously sweeping up dog hair.

john 15: 1-2 says "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."

doing dishes and laundry is necessary, yes, and i still sometimes have a mad frenzy to clean and get all the laundry done, but i have realized that God has helped ease some of my anxiety concerning these things so that i can focus on what His plans are for me.

letting go of these little things has led me to do some things i would have missed out on and meet some people i would have never crossed paths with. He has touched people through me because i sat down long enough to write a letter instead of wiping the counters down. His purpose for me is greater than having the best kept house in the world.

i didn't realize any of this until a few weeks ago when we went to visit some friends and they both commented on how much more relaxed i seemed. these friends understand my obsessive need to clean and organize so for them to notice it was pretty remarkable. i hadn't even seen it yet. but as soon as she said it, all the puzzle pieces came together.

i was more relaxed. i was more approachable. i was a little less anxious skye and a little more cool and awesome skye. i had really let go of things that were holding me back so i could grow in other, more important areas of my life. and even looking back over the few weeks since then, i've noticed changes. once i let go of those things, other things, like writing, designing, and painting, became more enjoyable and less of a burden.

so. what are you holding on to that is keeping you from enjoying life? it doesn't have to be housework. it could be anything from unresolved anger with someone to a constant struggle with making sure your kids are always perfect. let it gooooo. let God take those problems from you and open up a huge spot for Him in your life.



take a deep breath and breathe God in. breathe all that unnecessary stuff you worry about out.