My newest addiction on T.V. are the shows on hoarding. There is the A& E show “Hoarders” and the TLC “Hoarding: buried alive.” These shows got me thinking about what hoarding is and how it would be defined. So that is where I am going to start is by defining hoarding.
According to Mayoclinic.com:
“Hoarding is the excessive collection of items, along with the inability to discard them. Hoarding often creates such cramped living conditions that homes may be filled, with only narrow pathways winding through stacks of clutter. Some people also collect animals, keeping dozens or hundreds of pets often in unsanitary conditions.
Hoarding, also called compulsive hoarding and compulsive hoarding syndrome, may be a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). But many people who hoard don’t have other OCD-related symptoms.
People who hoard often don’t see it as a problem, making treatment challenging. But intensive treatment can help people who hoard understand their compulsions and live safer, more enjoyable lives.”
So hoarding is the inability to get rid of objects. My question is objects the only things that we can hoard? My answer is no, I think that we can hoard other things it being money , love, time. You can hoard your money by being cheap. Now I am not saying that being cheap or thrifty (what I like to call) by finding sales or going to cheaper stores for food, cloths, etc… is a bad thing actually it is quite smart. I am talking about when you never spend any money of your own. You may tell people that you are always broke so they don’t ask for money or when you never let your friends live down the fact that you paid for their dinner six months ago. . You can hoard love by not showing affection to your children or to your spouse. You can hoard your time by not taking the time for others but only for yourself. We all need me time but not all the time. I know that at times I can hoard all these things, we all can.
So then after looking hoarding definition I then went to the bible to see what I could find on this subject. After a somewhat long search found this Luke 1:13-21 NIV the Parable of the Rich Fool
“13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God””
I like this because I think that it does address hoarding in the light in which God wanted us to see. That God does not want us to hold on to everything even if we don’t need it. . We have all heard the saying “you can’t take it with you”. In Luke it is also saying, in my opinion, that when we hoard we are finding the things on earth more valuable than God. As I am watching these shows I find it interesting that they are “savers” or “collectors” yet they can’t walk in their house or actually live in the house. That their families feel like they don’t matter only “things” do. I also see that many of them have health problems due to the unsanitary conditions that they live in. Their hoarding is easier to see; others are not as easy to see. All of the things that we hoard are self-destructive either with our families or with God.
My rule of thumb for my house is: if you haven’t used it, worn it or seen it in 6 months you no longer need it. Part of that rule is that my husband and I clean out our closets every 6 months,
God Bless,
Dawn
This is one of your best ones yet! Love it!
Keep n coming I liked this one very much so true