‍Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Psalm 51:10 NLT

CONSIGN. It’s the most frequent and threatening verb spoken in our house. This word rolls off my tongue faster than kids open presents on Christmas. As soon as something comes in the house, I am looking to see what can go out.

Do you know how many possessions kids accrue over time? Even with having a Consign Queen mother, my children still manage to create treacherous toy landmines.

So when it became impossible to walk a clear path in my kids rooms without tripping on something, it was time to reorganize.

In search for the lost carpet, we made four piles: Keep, Consign, Donate, Garbage.

My son and daughter each kept a fair number of toys. It was amazing what they were able to find when they cleaned. So many rediscovered items were returned to their rightful places.

Every time I heard the magic word, “consign” from my children, it was like beautiful music to my ears! Seriously. It became rhythmic: consign, consign, consign.

Several toys were purposely set aside for donations.

And then, there was the garbage pile. Or should I say, multiple piles! We filled up four large garbage bags with, you guessed it—trash. Broken electronics, decapitated dolls, empty plastic packaging, glow sticks that lost their luminosity months ago, old homework, crumbled paper airplanes, capless markers, used band-aids (gross), and the list goes on . . .

Just as I had no space to walk in my children’s rooms, sometimes our Heavenly Father is not given space to walk with us in our lives. It’s not because He’s not powerful enough to step into our mess, but rather sometimes our minds are not cleared enough to see Him.

Some of my children’s most precious toys were lost in plain sight. These items never left their rooms, but their living space was too overcrowded with undesired junk to even notice these forgotten misplaced articles.

In order for us to experience the love and power that is available right in front of us, we need to remove the garbage and useless habits that block our spiritual paths. This is how we make room to walk with Jesus.

Consign your mind. Get rid of what is not needed in order to make space for what is good.

When I consign toys, I hand them over to a store in exchange for cash. When we swap out our old thoughts and behaviors of this world, we get to exchange space in our hearts and minds for greater treasure—Jesus. This decision results in something much better than a clean room . . . it leads to a transformed life!

Dear Lord, Help us to discard the useless junk in our lives and exchange it for a renewed clean heart. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.