Hidden Cheerios

As I started the task of cleaning her room I immediately became ill. Kristina was three years old at the time and there was stuff everywhere! Toys were piled up to the ceiling it seemed like. She had shoved things under her bed, in her closet, under the toy box and don't even get me started on what she had shoved into her dresser drawers.

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With each tug and pull I became more and more ill. She stood at the doorway crying every time I shoved a broken toy (those annoying McDonald's toys!) into the garbage bag because it was her "most prized possession" or so she thought.

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Within about fifteen minutes of my cleaning spree I came across a stash of cheerios. They were all grouped in a nice, neat pile hidden inside one of her green "kitchen pots" that she played with. She had the lid tightly closed and had the pot stuck inside the oven to her kitchen set.

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"What is this about?" I asked her.

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"Ummmm....those are mine!" she stated. Mind you, she was pretty ill at this point and with big crocodile tears streaming down her face she was not only heartbroken that I was throwing her possessions away she was mad as fire that I had stepped into her territory.

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I took the Cheerios and tossed them in the garbage bag and I told her that she can't keep food in her room or else she'll have ants crawling everywhere. She began to wail and scream as if I had just thrown out the greatest thing known to man! "But, they is mine!" she cried.

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I remember stopping the cleaning process because I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere, I picked her up and we sat on the couch and watched a movie. The cleaning could wait until she was asleep!

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How many times in life do we hold on to our Cheerios? We put the lid on ever so tightly and hide it in the oven of our kitchen so that no one can see it or take it. We hold onto them with everything we have in us but then we question why we are so sad, why we don't have peace. Luke 14:33 says "So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own." (NLT). Everything you own, in my opinion, not only means our earthly possessions but also the stuff that we tuck away and hide in our hearts. Jealousy. Fear. Anxiety. Hatred. Selfishness. Worry. Despair. Anger. We must throw out all of that "junk" before we can follow Him. How do we throw it all away? Hmmmm, I wish I had an answer for you because as I'm sitting here typing these words my heart is being tugged at as well! Many, many things I hide. I'm good at throwing out other people's things but I seem to struggle with throwing out my own... Where are your Cheerios today?