Old Baggage

I love going through my grandmother's cedar trunk. I love looking at her keepsakes, her memories from time passed and pieces of our family history that she neatly has stored away. 

I ,too ,have filled my cedar trunk passed down to me from my mom with keepsakes, memories and pieces of family history for my girls and grandchildren. 

Just as my grandmother's trunk is filled with love, so is mine.

There is a difference in holding on to life's precious memories and carrying around old baggage. 

Old baggage is not a trunk full of beautiful memories. 

It is not unconditional love.

It is wounds that never were allowed to be healed.....

Old scars that continue to be ripped open....

It is un-forgiveness....

Shame......

Guilt.......

Rejection.......

Anger.........

It is a life time of pain that has never been released from the depths of our hearts and soul.

 Holding on to old baggage will hold a person to their past. It will become an unbearable weight who's only goal is to keep anything beautiful from shinning into ones life. 

Old baggage is turmoil and strife....

It is lies and deceit.....

It becomes mistrust and doubt.

Old baggage is seeing others through the eyes of past hurts and keeping anything beautiful and new from forming.

I admit, I held on to my old baggage for years.

I believed I was protecting myself from any future pain that may be trying to creep into my life. 

I told myself over and over that I would not allow anything in that would cause me to hurt.

Sadly what I did not see ,my life was nothing but pain and I was keeping the love of God out as well. 

It took me a few years to allow him to come in and go through my old baggage, one piece at a time.

(Swallowing your pride can be hard, but it can be done.)

I wish I could say there were no painful steps in the process but there was, along with some really joyful steps and peace that I have never felt before. 

 Someone once told me, "God can not give you the good until you get rid of the bad."

The bad in my life was all the hurtful junk I was carrying in my trunk. (heart)

All my past pain was neatly placed there under lock and key as a daily reminder to my heart why I should continue to haul my old baggage around through life.

Over time, I had to learn not to let the hurts of the world force me into holding on to my old baggage,  In life there will always be love and joy, as well as pain and sorrow. 

It is up to us what we choose to pack away in our heart of trunks.

Will it be life lessons filled with love, healing and gratefulness or will it be unhealed painful wounds that continue to fester and weigh us down?

I am learning daily to have peace in my life, I must allow the love of God to remove any and all old baggage from my life. 

For me to receive love in this life I must be able to give it freely without the hindrance of old baggage and the fear of pain.  

I want the trunk I leave for my children to be full of love, healing, perseverance,blessings,forgiveness, courage and strength, not old baggage.

What do you want your trunk to look like? 

xoxoxo 

                                                      Stacey

Psalms 73:26 

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.