“You Owe It to Them!”
Over the years you and I have been the recipients of untold blessings for which we are eternally grateful. We are thankful for loving, sacrificing parents who provided us as children with shelter, provisions, security, and best of all – love. Our parents were motivated by love and a sense of duty to give us their best, to make our paths easier to trod.
We who live here in Retirementville are for the most part, these very same parents. Practically every major responsibility of being good parents is behind us. But there remains one final task for us best explained as follows: We all have been educated to choruses that sing, “Who do you expect to clean up that mess you made?” You ask, how does this apply to me living in my cosy, fully furnished retirement home? Well, there is a reality just around the corner and that is that you will pass away most likely sooner than you think and that all the stuff in your cosy retirement cottage will be left behind for someone, most likely your children, to sort, clean up, and dispose of! That is that If you don’t act upon this distinctive principle – leave no mess behind, you will have failed in your final task. If your mess is left unattended to, is it really your best that you left your chaotic pile to be cleaned up by your loved ones? Is this the way you want them to remember you, a mess maker and leaver?
What can you do to be a blessing rather than a curse in your remaining days on earth and leave a good taste in the mouths of your children and inheritors? First and foremost, you must get rid of the mountains of junk you have accumulated over a lifetime. Sell it, donate it, pitch it, burn it! But don’t leave it behind! You owe it to them!
Your spouse of sixty some years left the scene seven years ago. Your garage, basement, and crawl space are all crammed full of his rusty tools not used in twenty years. On yonder bench a mile long are untold number of jars with screws, nails, hooks, and everything in between. Against the grey concrete walls are shelves stacked to the ceiling with plastic boxes loaded with toggles, bolts, leftover pieces from various electrical, telephonic, electronic, and plumbing gadgets. Old lawn mowers, rakes, hoes, shovels lay in piles all coated with grease and grime. You owe it to them to get rid of this stuff!
In your attic and the ever handy dump area, the crawl space, you have fifty boxes of Christmas stuff, ten boxes holding Easter bunnies, and another fifteen containers of Halloween items. You didn’t miss a season! You haven’t strung or hung a thing in ten years. This stuff once used annually is now only celebrated by the mice that get into these boxes. One thing is for sure: your relatives don’t want any of this stuff. You owe it to them to get rid of this junk! Unload it to Wear and Share! Garage Sales, whatever it takes.
Check your closets. Do you see all the clothes and shoes of your deceased spouse that date back to the Civil War? His stuff is so old and out date that they aren’t even made out of polyester or synthetic leather! And what about all the garments you haven’t worn in ten years? How many feathered hats do you need these days. Or mink stoles?. Or mini or maxi skirts? Do everybody a big favor and pack all this stuff into black plastic bags and make a visit to Dillards’ West. You owe it to them to get rid of it.
Another area that needs total purging are things made out of paper: bank statements, IRS returns, Yearbooks, textbooks, “Daily Breads”, National Geographics, folders on any subject, and the sacred cow of all – photo albums. This stuff has to go not only for the unvalue of it, but that it is all very heavy to even lift into the dumpsters that the family will need unless you heed the precept, You owe it to them to get rid of the Junk!”
Lastly, furniture – you got to be kidding! Your stuff is so out of date, so worn, and usually so large that no survivor wants it much less than they have a place to put it. Call the local resale store and see if you can’t dump all this old wood off on them. Give them the problem! Just get rid of the junk. You owe it to them!”
Note: This picture is of a friend of mine whose parents failed it their final responsibility. He is now in recovery, but please continue to pray for him.