Here I sit, amidst the wreckage.

Piles of boxes and gifts everywhere. Toys, shiny and new, lining the walls. My babies are asleep in their beds, and their mother has hit the road for a much needed vacation, so they are with us for the next eight days.

Yesterday was a wonderful day. Lots of laughter, fun, excitement, and surprise. However, by the time we sat down to the beautiful dinner I had prepared, laid out on my new-to-me, family china, we were all a little tired. I had included the children in our dinner, thinking that it’s never too early to teach them how to eat with manners at a fancy table, but suffice to say that next year’s dinner will begin just after their bedtime.

Maybe not until 9:00, just to be on the safe side.

They were wired. Hyped up on sugar, a blur of gifts, and overall revelry. Basically, they had gorged on Christmas, full as ticks on a dog with holiday cheer, and something had to give. In an intermission between the main course and dessert, they were hauled off to bed, literally kicking and screaming, as a soft Diana Krall Christmas song played in the background. I shudder to think how Norman Rockwell would’ve interpreted it on canvas.

Truthfully, it was kind of funny, and it did nothing to tarnish the beauty of the day. But, as I sit in the aftermath, I think it’s a pretty good picture of our own gluttonous ways. We are a people who simply cannot get enough of a good thing, am I right? If a little is good, isn’t more a lot better??

However, on this 26th day of December, all I want to do is purge. My house, certainly (you should see my kitchen!), but my soul, too. It feels a little too crowded with stuff that doesn’t matter in the eternal scheme of life, stuff that may temporarily satisfy a desire, but leaves me wanting more.

And today, of all days, I can tell you that more is not always better.

At the end of this holiday season, I’m thinking about cleaning out, making room for what is BEST.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. ~ Romans 12:2 NIV