You know it’s time to declutter when you are in a group of people and you open your mouth and the wrong words pop out.

Come on, I know I’m not the only one who’s ever done this. Please fess up.

Maybe you’re a teacher and you leave the classroom for just a few minutes and those little darlings turn into who knows what just because you left the room. Oh and because they don’t have their phones to look at.

On a personal note, I got sick and my mind became cluttered. My thoughts kept bumping into each other. Other thoughts became negative, very, very harmful. Some words just shriveled up and kept to themselves.

The words, “always” and “never” showed up and stayed. Someone let them in.

Well, with all you’ve read just about anywhere, you know we need to declutter, to get rid of things that don’t benefit us. And today might be that day for you. Now, I’m a fairly organized person. Some might say OCD, but I’m not counting my family right now.

I like things in order. And yes, there IS a right way to fold a towel. But I digress.

Maybe I’m a person who thinks better when things are organized because my life growing up was so chaotic.

When things are in order in my mind works better.

So, I decided to do an inventory and sort out my thoughts. What needs to go is going. You may find my system worth trying.

As with any organization project, I got some bins ready for sorting. Three will do it.

Save Bin

This will be for the thoughts worth keeping. If I’m not sure which ones to keep, I compare them to Philippians 4:8. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.”

• true
• noble (high moral principles)
• right
• pure
• lovely
• admirable

Summed up in one word- Godly thoughts. Sometimes when I have these thoughts, I will be prompted to share them. That’s okay.

Toss Bin

In this bin, I’ll throw out thoughts that are NOT true, noble, right, pure, and so on. I needed more than one bin for these negative thoughts that hold me back.

Thoughts like:

I’m not going to be able to do it.
I’ve never really measured up.
I’ll never amount to anything.

These go in a toss bin. No matter how much they try to convince you otherwise. Be firm.

A good rule of thumb for this bin is, will this thought lift up, or tear down? If it’s the latter, get rid of it!

Give Away

Finally, in this last bin I’ll put thoughts I want to share. Only those worth sharing go in here. And I mean sharing in a positive, helpful way. Not those thoughts that burn inside you because if this person only knew what you knew…You get the idea.

If I’m not sure at all, I’m tossing it. I don’t want to pass on something questionable.

Have you ever shared a positive thought and watch it soak into someone’s heart. The sides of their mouth start to curl up and their eyes sparkle.

Positive thoughts are meant to be shared because in this world we’re living in, people are starving for them.

The negative ones are everywhere. And we need to combat that.

People need encouragement. I need encouragement.

They say it takes nine positive things to offset one negative. The problem is, people don’t have just one negative thought to stave off. They are filled with them. Sometimes from what others say, sometimes they are in their own words.

If you need to bins for the Give-Aways that’s okay. One way to avoid this is to keep emptying it. Every time you go out the door, take some of these with you and ask God who needs them. He knows. My Father reads hearts.

After I’m done sorting, my mind feels less cluttered. I breathe in space, good space.

I feel grateful, able to concentrate on others instead of just thinking of myself.

It was definitely time to de-clutter. My thoughts were all over the place, actually bumping into each other. And once in a while, I found myself saying something off the wall.

I’m glad that’s done. Now I can concentrate again.

So, how about you? What are you thinking?

Call to Action

Which thoughts are overrunning your mind right now?
Which ones do you want to get rid of?
Who will you encourage today?
I’d love to hear from you.