The Cocoa Motion

Hello and greetings on this muggy morning!

Whew! Our house in Stedman is now empty. The cleaners came yesterday (and did not do a good job, I might add.) The carpet cleaners will be there in a little while. And then the house will be ready for our new renters! Well, except for the rest of our worldly possessions that are in the garage. Mark and I packed until 1am Thursday and then we got the rest of the items into the garage and the suitcases packed Thursday morning. I have had the mail forwarded. We have both decided to never try to move stuff by ourselves again. We have also decided that we have too much stuff. That is one of those tricky things. For example, someone we like gave us a "Cocoa Motion" as a wedding present. For those of you not familiar with this device, it is designed to heat water or milk and then to stir in the chocolate powder to create delicious hot cocoa without all the tedious stirring. The girls LOVE it. What do you do with things like that. It is perfectly good. It does make cocoa to the perfect temperature. However, do we really need it? No. But what to do…someone was very kind and gave us a gift. It works. But do we really want to pack it up and move it?

We have things in our hearts and minds just like that, though they are usually negative. Do we have anger jingling around in our minds against someone who do something to us 20 years ago or 20 minutes ago for that matter? Are there hard feelings that are hiding deep in our souls against that relative that always seems to make us feel bad? How do all these negative feelings weigh us down? Do they make it harder for us to go from one place to another? Do they impede our ability to be happy or to love others?

Let's free ourselves from the chains of anger and resentment and fear. Let's let God help us let go of those hard feelings. It will feel so much better to forgive because forgiving means that the other person no longer has power over you.

Now, I admit that the Cocoa Motion is still with us. Perhaps soon we will be willing to send it on to the thrift store. (However, if anyone feels like they need a Cocoa Motion, we can certainly hook you up!) The more we can say goodbye to, the easier and less cluttered our lives will be. And, of course, that goes for our hearts as well as our closets!

Have a great day everyone! We are going to the beach today but will be staying in Laurinburg with my parents starting tomorrow until the parsonage is ready. So, if you need me, the cell phone is the best way to go!

Have a great day and a wonderful weekend! See you on Sunday at 9:30 for Sunday School!