And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall. Nehemiah 4:10
I realize that this Bible verse is a looooooong stretch, as a tie in to either the title or the general topic of this post. But rubbish is the only word that I could think of that might be in the Bible, somewhat similar to the meaning of garbage!
Earlier in the week, my husband and I had shared a bag of unsalted peanuts in the shell. I ate my portion and gave the rest to my husband and said the rest was his. He ate some of it, and rolled up the rest of the peanuts and put them on our island in the kitchen. They were there all week, and I tried to talk him into putting them away, but it didn't speedily happen. So, I asked my husband if he really wanted the peanuts, and told me that he didn't want any more.
Well, I love peanuts, and I was O.K. with him eating them, putting them away, or throwing them away, but I didn't like the idea of them wasting. So, what did I do??? You got it, I got the peanut bag and opened it up to eat the last of the 13-14 peanuts in the shell. Was I hungry at the time? No, I wasn't. It just was too little an amount to put on the shelf, and I didn't want them to waste. As I was taking the bag full of shells to dump into our garbage can, "I'm not a garbage can," popped into my mind. I don't have to eat every last bit of things that might go to waste. God thinks more highly of me than that, or else He wouldn't have put that thought on my mind. It's what I used to do, before I started putting my food, my body, and my stress into His very capable hands! Fortunately for me, He reminds me when I start slipping back into old, counterproductive patterns, and He will do the same for you if you'd let Him!
