Empty Out Your Purse

I am a bit of a collector. Before I had little ones I carried around a gargantuan of a purse (really, it was far more room than was necessary for any one person). I still found a way to fill it up with stuff, though. Anything you could think to need or never want to see again was probably hidden in its depths. Lipstick? Check! Notebook? Yessir! Chewed gum? Probably. *Eww!* There was so much stuff jam-packed in there that I could never find anything I needed! Fast-forward to current day and I have a much bigger purse (some people call it a diaper bag). I have had to pair down my extras to make room for the what-if-my-little-one-might-possibly-need-fill-in-the-blank extras that have replaced them. So no more chewed gum or lipstick...instead there are soggy cheerios and diaper cream. Still one jam-packed bag though! (I have NO IDEA how I'm going to fit the gear needed for baby #2...I might have to upgrade to a duffel bag!)

Anyway...the point of all this randomness is that I think I found my new mantra. It's pretty simple and I have to give a shout out to some friends for sharing it with me. Here goes: "Empty out your purse." Sounds simple enough, huh? Not too profound. And yet, as I was talking about this concept with friends the other day I was floored. Not because I hadn't thought about the benefit of cleaning out my purse-turned-diaper-bag, but because we were talking about the clutter we rack up in our minds and hearts and even our lives. How often do I keep adding things to my mind that I don't need in there? Or how often do I use my time in ways that don't offer me anything in return?

If I want to be a woman who finds peace and contentment in the life I live, than I need to be evaluating...what do I need to take out of my purse today? Sometimes it is an unrealistic expectation I have for myself (oftentimes in the realm of what I "should be" doing as a mom or wife) and sometimes it is an action that doesn't benefit me or those around me (like using my free time getting lost on facebook instead of doing something that makes me thrive, like reading a good book or getting crafty). So to my purse-filling sisters out there...what do you need to take out today? It is a freeing exercise...and the fun thing is that when I choose to "dump out" the things that don't need to be in there, I actually have a little room to breathe and find the things that I want. Now that is something worth celebrating!

Today I am linking up with Mom's The Word and Messy Marriage!