From Old To New

When my girls were young, I would pick up their toys at the end of the day after they were tucked into bed. You are going to think I'm a mean mom, but those toys then became mine. I would tell them "Feel free to pick up any toys you want to keep, and I will keep the ones I pick up." 

They didn't believe me until they noticed all their toys were picked up the next morning. Yes, I heard moans and groans, but they didn't forget to pick up their toys that next evening.  Some toys they left because they didn't care about the McDonald's toys. That's fine. I just collected them in a bag until a few weeks went by, and I thought, "What should I do with all these toys now?  They don't seem to care about these or miss them."

I heard an idea from a parent in one of my first parenting classes. She told me she had a garage sale with her kids' toys. Now, before you think I'm a really mean mom, let me explain. 

I had a garage sale for my girls. I laid out all the unwanted toys on the dining room table, put up price signs, and told the girls they could shop at my sale.  Surprisingly, they ran to their rooms to grab their purse and any loose change they could find to purchase their own items. You should have seen the looks on their faces as they began to shop, hunt for the right items and figure out what was worth their small allowance. You know I always gave good deals, and sometimes they would combine their money to buy a bigger item together. It was like magic. We had so much fun with it, and guess what? Mom was the best that day!

These old toys became the highlight of the day. The girls took all their purchases down to their rooms and played all afternoon together with their once old, but now fun new toys. The old had become new! The once taken for granted became cherish possessions.  The ones left behind and unwanted were worth buying back. The ordinary became of value with a little absence.

A couple Saturdays ago, I decided to clean the garage. As I was pulling everything out, Ava saw all the paint cans and asked if we could clean up and paint the shed. 

We started to pull things out of the little red barn. It was full of old paints left from the previous owner, broken pieces of shelving, cobwebs galore. You name it...it was in there. We even enjoyed taking a sledge hammer to an old broken cabinet. 

Once cleaned out and dusted, we used leftover paint from the garage to touch up the room a bit and bring in some color.

As we painted, Ava asked me questions about my old playhouse on the Enzminger ranch on the Bluff.  It was a place where my imagination grew. It was where I mimicked my mom's cooking and served my family (aka stuffed animals). It was where I developed the art of organizing and arranging. I was a mom. I was an explorer. I was an interior decorator. I was a pet owner. I was grocery shopper.  I was not a wife because boys were gross at that time in my life, and I couldn't imagine being married to a weird boy.

It was small, but to me it was MY home. This is the only picture I could find of it in my photos...I was a bit too big for it when this picture was taken. After I left home, it became the dog house.

Yes, I'm wearing wranglers and cowboy boots. I sometimes dress the part of the country in me.

So compared to my little playhouse, Ava and I were cleaning out a mansion. After all our hard preparations were done, the interior decorator showed up....sister Austyn. She was so excited by the transformation of the little red barn that her creative juices began to flow...adding flowers, lights, and furniture. I could see my job was done, and the project had a new manager. The old shed given a facelift was ripe ground for imagination and new sister fun.

I didn't see them for several hours that evening other than passing me by in the garage with armfuls of school supplies from their rooms. At one point I decided to check things out. 

Right after school on Monday, Ava disappeared. I found her doing her homework in the little red barn. We just added square footage to our home; it's just a detached room.

With a little transformation, old became new. With a little determination and work, unused space became a fun space to do life. With a vision, new activity and life formed. Sometimes we miss the value of the old, worn out, and dirty, but Jesus didn't.  Sometimes we forget what we have because we are looking for something better with not as much maintenance. Jesus doesn't shy away from maintenance.  I'm thankful for that.  Jesus loved to turn the old into new, to clean up and sweep out the dirty, to breathe life into death, and I'm so glad He still does.

What's old in my life that He wants to make new? What "old" in my life do I now see as valuable? What area in my life do I need a clean sweep and dusting?

I'm sensing God has picked up some of my old toys that I've left behind, items that didn't seem as valuable to me at the time, but now He is holding a garage sale and showing me newness in the old. I'm finding even more value in them now in this season of my life, and I'm grateful He is offering them back to me.