Chapter 3: Unclutter Your Life

 

Chapter Three

Unclutter Your Life

 “All things must be done in order.” (Mosiah 4:27)

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There have been on occasions in my life when someone says to me, “I want my life back!”  After listening to their very busy lifestyle there is no surprise as to why they would feel that way.  They have put so much into their days that even the basic task of life is overwhelming.   Like them, I have from time to time found myself living a life in which the things I had surrounded myself with was using up my time and taking over my life.

There’s a story I once heard of a boy who arrived home from school and found his father standing at the open door looking into a very cluttered house. “Is Mother home?” asked the boy. His father answered, “I can’t see her, but I know she’s in there somewhere. I can hear sobbing.”

Perhaps some of us can relate to this mother. Sometimes we allow too much “stuff” to clutter up our lives.  If you have a chaotic life chances are your life is running you.  A few years ago a paper towel commercial had a slogan that said, “Life is messy, clean it up!”  I love that!  Applied to our life, we can follow that same thought, if life is messy, clean it up. 

It is not hard to become caught up in the things of the world and allow ourselves to be encumbered. We can surround ourselves with the material things to the extent that we have no time for the spiritual.  Look around and see if there are things in your life that cause you to squander and waste your time. Some things are more obvious than others. But some are so subtle that they seem to slowly take control of us.

Cleverly indirect is how the word subtle is defined.  Our Heavenly Father is very direct with us, so the opposite plan would be that of Satan.  Doesn’t that sound like something he would love to do to us, negatively influence our lives in subtle ways?  

Can you think of anything that suits the devil better than to become a silent partner with us? He knows that we have agency and have the right to make choices for ourselves. He also knows that while in mortality we are subject to time. If by his subtle means he can become our silent partner, he can then influence us to make wrong choices that use up our time unwisely and prevent us from doing that which we should.

Let’s take the illustration of watching TV.  Have you ever noticed that successful adults watch far less TV than unsuccessful adults? I am not saying that all TV is bad or that if you watch TV you are not successful but rather to just look at the influence TV has in your life.  Many of the successful adults I know say, "Life is short! Who has time to waste it on TV?"  I remember reading an article that said that most of the programs on TV are incredibly mindless and have no value?  There are some great programs that can truly edify us but there are also some that are harmless but a total waste of time, or they are harmful. It is harmful when it repeatedly injects negative thoughts into your brain. Studies have shown that we are exposed to murders and violence in huge proportions. The reality is that a vast majority of people in normal life are exposed to 0 murders and very few violent acts. TV makes violence seem normal and acceptable. What value does that have?

It has been said that the average American spends about 2 hours a day watching TV. That doesn’t sound too bad, right? But what if there is a program we want to watch we make sure we are doing something productive at the same time.  I find that when there is a show I think I want to watch, that I need to have some other kind of work I can do at the same time such as laundry, or scrapbooking and family history. Or, what if we read instead, took a walk, did family history, learn to play an instrument, create a work of art, talk to other people, take up a sport or do anything constructive. It is also possible to watch a show that is positively constructive to us. Ift may lift our spirits or help us to rest, but we shouldn’t let television become a focal point in our lives. 

How do we use our time?  In an article titled, Unclutter Your Life; Return to the Basics, Elder William R. Bradford of the Seventy said, “We give our lives to that which we give our time.” He says that in the process of uncluttering our lives we should have a list of basics, a list of those things that are indispensable to our mortal welfare and happiness and our eternal salvation.  This list must pursue the gospel pattern and contain the elements needed for our sanctification and perfection. A product of inspiration and prayerful judgment between the things we really need and the things we just want can be determined through this process and should separate need from greed. Our list should be our best understanding of those things that are important as opposed to those things that are just interesting.

He continues to teach that at the top of our list should be our devotion to God followed by the welfare of our family. Their temporal and spiritual well-being is of vital importance, and so with that comes work to provide for them. This means hard work. Although there has to be a balance and time for the fun things, they cannot outweigh the need for a cooperative effort by all the members of the family to provide for their spiritual and temporal needs. To work is a commandment from God. It is the pattern for the happiness of individuals and the family and is the strength of both the Church and society.

Brother Bradford also teaches that mothers should never allow themselves to become so involved with extras that she finds herself neglecting her divine role. A father must not let any activity, no matter how interesting or  important it may seem, keep him from giving of himself in the one-on-one service and close, constant care of each member of the family.

Unclutter your life; return to the basics Youth must learn that none of the exciting and entertaining and fun things are worth it if they take you off from the path that will lead you back home to your Heavenly Father. (Unclutter Your Life; Return to the Basics, by Elder William R. Bradford of the Seventy Published: Saturday, April 11, 1992; Church News) 

Titles such as Mother, Father, son, brother and sister will persist after this life. All that we may acquire and any titles we may earn which are worldly will pass away. These titles of the world could be helping to clutter up our lives and affecting our eternal outcome. We need to make sure we have made time for those things that will add to our lives, not take away from.

We need to make time for prayer.  Our prayers need to be more than just occasional, quick, and repetitious. Prayers should not be something we quickly do on our way to do something else. I remember sitting in a Relief Society class and listening to comments about prayer.  I was a little surprised as sisters shared how they had their morning prayer in the shower or on the road to somewhere.  If our prayers are going to be honest and sincere as we plead for guidance and seek forgiveness from the depths of our hearts, then can we not stop long enough to kneel in humility showing our Heavenly Father by that sweet action that we really do love him?  We can always have additional prayers as we go about our day, but taking time to kneel privately to visit with our Heavenly Father will be a great blessing to us.

Time needs to be made for scripture reading. We each need the word of God in our lives.  It will guide and direct us and bring peace to our souls. Lehi saw the iron rod. We learn that iron rod represented the word of God and those who hold to the rod, were led to safety, even to the tree of life and then were able to partake of its sweet fruit. (1 Nephi).  I have found and received many answers through scripture study.  As I read over the same stories, because of a different trial I may be facing or a different time of life, the words that I have read so many times before that were just part of the story, all of a sudden have greater meaning to me.  My vision and understanding grow a little bit more and I can feel that line upon line teaching fill my spirit with hope and happiness.

When we learn to live an uncluttered life we will be happier.  We will find many of our anxieties will flee from us. We will see and feel the simplicity of His great Plan of Happiness and have blessing added upon us. We will become more receptive to the spirit.

One night as a young teenager, I lay trying to sleep in my bed as an irritating cricket would not hush his annoying chirping.  I lay in bed tossing and turning trying to put the sound of this obnoxious insect out of my head. It was winter time and we had tile floors so I didn’t want to get out of my warm bed, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t think the noise away.  In fact, it seemed to just get louder and louder.  I finally pulled the covers away and went to the sound of the cricket.  It was by my window, but I couldn’t find it.  I pounded on the window and the noise stopped.  Content for the moment, I crawled back in bed and the noise started back immediately.  After a few more failed attempts to find the cricket I finally concluded that it must be on the outside of my window.  I had no choice.  If I was going to get any sleep I would have to extract that cricket from the window to cease his exasperating chirping.  So with a stick and flashlight I took off outside. I headed to the side of the house where my bedroom window was located.  I approached the window and directed the light to the approximate location of the intruder and began my poking.  I would find and remove that cricket before returning indoors.

While I was busy trying to eradicate this little noise machine other things were happening inside my home.  Little did I know that my noise had awoken my father.  While I was proceeding to stand in my pajamas in the cold dark of the night, with flashlight and stick in hand poking at a cricket, I hear a noise from behind me. I turn around instantly to see my father standing behind me ready to attack!  He didn’t know I was the one outside my window.  He thought it was an intruder and he had come to remove the flashlight, stick poking individual from outside of his teenage daughter’s window. 

To this day I laugh about that experience, but the point I wanted to make is that today many of us have crickets in our lives that distract us from what we need to be doing. We need to remove the crickets in our lives that are chirping so loud that we are distracted from what is important.  We must not let the influences of Satan interfere with any part of our life.  Our lives should be under our own control. We each have our own agency in this probationary period called mortal life. What a divine and marvelous gift of time we have been given to learn to be like our Father in Heaven by following the teachings of His son, Jesus Christ.  He will lead us and guide us back to our father on a path that is clean and uncluttered.

Take your life back. Learn to say no to those things that will rob you of your precious time and infringe upon your agency to choose to live in exactness to God’s plan of happiness and exaltation. We need to strive always to “clear he clutter” that may cause us to lose our way.