Mynnette's Musings: De-Cluttering Our Minds

The Parable of the Cluttered Room

                I sometimes have a problem with letting my clutter get too out of hand.  This usually happens in our bedroom because I’m rarely in it—just to sleep and sometimes read.  There are sometimes piles of clothes precariously stacked on top of night tables, books piled up in an unnerving manner and bags of things thrown into inconvenient corners.  This causes me a lot of stress sometimes because I worry about hurting myself in the middle of the night when I can’t see what’s in front of me.  I also worry that perhaps I’ll knock down a pile while maneuvering around.  It causes me a lot of grief until I finally clean the mess.  Then I can finally sleep without worrying about hurting myself in the middle of the night!

                This is like our mind.  If we let anything into it, thrown carelessly about, we can’t think clearly or maneuver through our daily lives with peace because something will pop into our heads at the most inopportune time.  If we let things pile up and don’t take the time to weed our thoughts or replace them with neat stacks of good thoughts, our stress will continue to increase!  We should take time each and every day to put worthy thoughts into our heads and throw away the piles of magazines from 20 years ago that we don’t want and shouldn’t read anyway!  We will be happier if we do so!

                I know that as we go through life, we should be very careful about what we watch, listen to and participate in.  It is easy to clean a room—but hard to clean out a precious mind that is so susceptible to unworthy images.

Related scriptures:  Psalms 94:11, Psalms 119:113, Proverbs 12:5, Isaiah 55:8-9, Romans 8:7, 1 Corinthians 2:16, 2 Corinthians 8:12, Ephesians 4:17, 1 Peter 4:1, 2 Nephi 9:39, 2 Nephi 25:29, Mosiah 2:9, D&C 8:2, D&C 11:13, D&C 67:10, D&C 84:85.