Rescue me from this eternal confusion of belongings (mine and other people's) that just won't stay orderly. This suffocation of phone calls, clubs and committees. ("No man can serve two masters," you said. A woman is lucky if she has only two!) This choke of bills and papers and magazines and junk mail. I buy too many things, subscribe to too many things, belong to too many things. The result is such confusion I can't really enjoy or do justice to anything!
Deliver me from some of this, Lord. Help me to stop bewailing this clutter and work out some plan for cutting down.
Give me the will power to stop buying things we don't really need and that only become a chore to take care of. Give me more sales resistance when it comes to antique stores and white-elephant sales and supermarkets. And give, oh give me the will power to get rid of a lot of things we already have. To unclutter my cupboards and closets and attic of things hung onto too long.
And oh, Lord, help me to unclutter my life of too many activities. Give me the self-discipline to stop joining things. And to weed out the organizations that don't really matter to me. (They'll be better off without me. ) And the strength to say "No" more often when the telephone rings.
Lord, show me a way of uncluttering my life even of too many people without being unkind. A way to love and help people without letting them gobble me alive,
There are so many dear, wondeful people I long to see, need to be with for my own soul's growth. Yet we are lost to each other because of this profligate squandering of energy and time. Give me the determination to reclaim these truly life-strengthening frends, at whatever cost to other idle, meaningless relationships.
And while I'm at it, Lord, help me to unclutter my mind. Of regrets and resentments and anxieties, of idiotic dialogues and foolish broodings. Sweep it clean and free. Make it calm and quiet. Make it orderly.
Put me in control of it as well as my house. ..and my calendar ...and my harried spirit. Thank you. With your help I know I can triumph, I can unclutter my life.