Your Clothes Closet – What is in it? by Janis Cox our Community Mentor

We all have closets for clothes. Today I want to look in your closet – what’s in it?

A long time ago, I taught a Sunday school class about the difference between what we need and what we want. They understood this concept. We made a list of needs and came up with:

Food and water: Sustains life

Shelter (including heat and electricity) : Comforts Life

Transportation (how we can get around – walking, bicycle, car, bus, train, plane): Moves Life

Clothing (a covering for our bodies): Protects life

I am sure there might be more (spiritual, emotion, physical) but these four are the ones that Dave Ramsey in Financial Peace also talks about as the four walls you must include in your budget.

That’s all we NEED.

Today I want to look at the need of clothing.

Recently I read a great story called These Is My Words by Sarah Turner. I liked it so much I am reading the sequel, Sarah’s Quilt. They are stories based on life in Arizona in the late 1800s to early 1900s. At that time people would own maybe two sets of clothes. Repairs were made constantly and those clothes passed down through the family and friends.

Even in my family I remember my grandma darning socks. (You won’t find me doing that.) And I am sure that we all pass along used clothes to others.

BUT

How many clothes are in your clothes closet? Are your closets overflowing? Your children’s closets?

My rule of thumb has always been that when I buy something new something else has to be given away.

I want to challenge you to look in your clothes closets and sort through what’s there that you actually wear from what hangs there taking up space. One idea I heard said to put all your clothes in your closet on their hangers backwards. During the year when you have worn an outfit put it back in your closet on the hanger the right way. At the end of the year donate all the clothes that are still on their hangers backwards.

It isn’t wrong to live with less. Excess only complicates our lives.

A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions (Luke 12:15, NIV).

Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot (Luke 12:15, The Message).

Remember where our real abundance lies – in the riches of heaven.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal (Matthew 6:20, NIV).

We are studying a scripture a week at Word of God Speak – this week is Hebrews 1:10-12. I think it too reminds me that all we have will be gone – changed – so don’t store up anything except what God teaches us.

In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You will roll them up like a robe;
like a garment they will be changed.
But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.

Let’s focus on our needs. Look this week at the clothing you own. Can you prune your clothes closet and fill your minds with Christ’s riches instead?

Do you want to enrich your minds or fill your clothes closet?

Prayer:

Lord, we live in a world of over abundance. Help us look into our clothes closet today. Help us to see what is not needed. Help us to also look into our minds and see what riches we can store in them from God’s Word. In Jesus’ name. Amen.