What to save

What do you save and what do you throw away? We buy some houses from estates. The deceased usually stayed living in the house longer than they should have. I understand change is hard and if they were content and cared for until they died, I call that success.

Sometimes we buy the house with all its contents. That usually mean the contents have little to no value. The house we are cleaning out now was owned by a woman who evidently could not throw anything away. A young woman who had cared for her stopped by and walked through the house. She asked me what had happened to all the valuable papers. There were 5 filing cabinets and many boxes full of papers that the woman had told everyone were valuable. She had a copy of every letter she had ever written. She had every envelope of the letters her parents had sent her. The envelopes were empty, the letters saved in another file. I asked the young lady, "valuable papers? Valuable to whom?" Then she said "ah" and walked away.

We let people walk through the house and take what they wanted, We set furniture by the curb and then took 7 loads to the landfill! 

A lady told me we should save the kitchen cupboards. Yea, a nice thought but we are renting the house not creating an unlivable museum. They are now gone.

She had new garden tools she used 20 years ago and her parents old garden tools stored in the basement. Why does one keep what they keep? We found the old tools a new home. hopefully they will be displayed and not just stored in another basement.

This note above her stove reads that it last worked December 1999. She kept it. I have no idea what she cooked with. There was an electric skillet. Was she unable to get a new stove because the old one belonged to her parents? They passed away 44 years ago. That's a long time to keep an old kitchen stove.

Some things are not worth saving and other things have value. Usually it is the reason you are saving it that matters. Our son Joshua came and loaded up his great-grandfather's tractors today. His grandfather has kept them till now. Joshua and his grandfather restored the one tractor when Joshua was a teenager, the other tractor needs a lot of work. They have no value to me (sharon's family tractors, wouldn't want them even if they were my grandfather's) but to Joshua they are precious.

Joshua and a neighbor were looking though the book and invoices from when the tractor was new. Joshua's son Ethan who already wants to be a mechanic looks on.

We save what we see as valuable. We are willing to work and use space to save what is valuable to us.

What is valuable to you?

To me, my most valuable possession is my relationship with God. Am I willing to work to save it? Am I willing to use space in my life to save it. Am I willing to use my assets to maintain it and make sure it is in excellent shape?

Things can have value. Things can be saved and at times probably should be, but most important, things should not be what we are most interested in saving.

Our souls are what we need to make sure are saved for eternity with Jesus the Savior.