40 Bags in 40 Days: A Lenten Challenge

I got really excited when a friend shared this idea with me, because it seemed like the perfect Lenten challenge. Now that Emmy and Erin are crawling, I have a love/hate relationship with things. In reality, I always have - I like to get new things, I just don't like clutter. I also feel a tad guilty realizing that clutter means we have so much stuff, there's no place to put it all. Yep, that's why clutter is overwhelming, folks - it's because there really isn't "a place for everything and everything in its place" (at least that's how it is here!)

In case you didn't click through to the link above (the rest of this will make more sense if you do!) the challenge is to pick 40 spaces in your home and come up with 40 bags of stuff you don't need. The author gives a few places two days' credit in her list, figuring there's more than one bag of unneeded stuff in there. I'll probably have to give some places three or four bags, but I'm sure we can come up with 40 bags one way or another! I love the idea of going through a space at a time and committing to pass a bag of things on to someone who can use them.

As far as how this relates to Lent (other than it being a 40 day challenge): I think since we have been abundantly blessed, this allows us to bless others as well by giving them things they need. It's not always easy to give things away, especially if they have strong memories attached to them, but there's a finite amount of space at the end of the day. Plus, the focus can be less on things and more on Jesus - which is the whole idea of Lent in the first place. Who's with me?

Stay tuned tomorrow for my list!