The thing is, it was winter. I blame this entirely on the cold weather. I mean, lying there snuggled under two four eleven blankets with a hot chocolate in one hand and a book in the other? It’s easy to forget about things like sundresses and spaghetti straps.
That’s the story of how I opened my dresser drawer one hot summer day and discovered that I no longer owned any shorts. Because I read 7 in the winter time. And as I closed the book on Month Two, I simultaneously opened the door to the closet and began throwing everything I owned into a box hastily labeled “DONATE.”
Eventually logic returned to me but not before I decided that I no longer needed shorts. Or skirts. Or bathing suit cover-ups. And also bathing suits. Apparently, I confused “Donate Excess Clothing” with “A Pox On Summertime!” I just wiped summertime out of the seasons like those astronomers who pretend Pluto isn’t one of the planets.*
(It’s a problem for me but the people who would have been blinded by my pasty white legs are giving thanks to Jen Hatmaker.)
One box grew to two and then three and then fifteen. Fifteen boxes of clothes and accessories and if I had stacked them around me they would have been a physical representation of the spiritual wall I had been building as I attached myself to my possessions.
(Or an incredibly awesome box fort.)
After I read 7 I saw abundance everywhere. There was the fruitful, the “I came so that you may have life and have it in abundance” and there was the amassed, the abundance of things that I collected and held on to so tightly that it kept the former at bay.
7 changed my entire life.
But the breakthrough came in my closet. That’s not even a spiritual metaphor.
Except now that I think about it, one time, in college my closet was literally too full of clothes for me to fit in so I asked my roommate if I could borrow her closet. Not her clothes, her actual closet. So that I could pray in it. Because my own prayer closet was too full of clothes.
(Actually, that probably is some sort of metaphor.)
(Also, yes I WAS praying about a boy and a few years later he totally married me. Let this be a lesson to you. I don’t know what that lesson is except maybe make friends with someone who is less messy than you so you can room with them in college and pray in their closet about your future husband.)
I remembered reading this post by Angie Smith, one where she was teaching her girls to give beyond their castoffs. To give sacrificially, to part with the hard things. It’s easy to rehome those pants that emphasize all the things you don’t like about your post-childbirth bum. You, pants that did nothing to make me look like Pippa Middleton, you will not be missed.
It’s the strappy pink heels that I don’t want to part with. Barely worn, sitting pretty on my shelf they sneak into my conscience and say “Give.” And I’m all “No, I want wear you because who doesn’t wear heels to chase their toddler? And also you can’t even talk because you are shoes so stop saying convicting sorts of things to me.”
But more of 7 pours out of my heart and I recall the part about how people need shoes, good shoes, not ones that are worn down. I want to give and give well.
I gingerly place the pink strappy heels on top of a discarded bridesmaid dress and as the daylight flashes across the sequins and the sparkles dance over the bare closet wall I think of the girl who will find her prom attire in a box of donated clothing. I am ashamed. I am humbled. I am committed. This is only the smallest of starts
About Kayla Aimee
It’s a good thing those are aren’t your shoes in the picture because I was totally going to beg you to donate those adorable pink heels with the bow to ME…which really would defeat my own take on the book.
Girl. Yes. It is so hard for me to part with the things that I love even if they no longer fit! But this. This yes.
“But more of 7 pours out of my heart and I recall the part about how people need shoes, good shoes, not ones that are worn down. I want to give and give well.”
I want to give WELL.
I know! I’m like ‘but I bought that shirt in london’ even though that was when I was 16 and I have photos and memories and don’t really so much need the shirt that doesn’t fit anymore…
I first read about 7 on your blog, long before everyone else started talking about it. It’s a great read and has encouraged us one step closer toward adopting internationally. I look around our tiny 2 bedroom apartment full to the brim with STUFF (namely, knick knacks, books, and tons and tons of toys for our children) and I’m purging. 10 glass Pyrex bowls? Gone! When I think about our future child sitting in an orphanage, waiting for his forever family, stuff loses its importance. Thanks for sharing your heart, KA!
That is so amazing. I know what you mean, I’ve been purging for 6 months and I am still feeling the need to simplify and pare down and be surrounded by less. I am so excited for your adoption journey, I will be praying for y’all as you navigate that!
I REALLY want to read this book but am truly afraid of what I would do to my closet once I finished. That probably means I NEED to read this book.
Your post is great! I just finished this chapter and it is so humbling to think of people NEEDING the items that I hang onto for sentimental reasons or just because they are pretty. That’s the key….realizing the blessing that it can be to someone else makes it easy to let go of.
I moved over the summer and have still not really unpacked my room because I’ve been dreading the going through the clothes. I promised myself that I’d be realistic in what I need and actually use. I haven’t been able to face it.
Now, I can. Between Jen’s book, your post and God’s grace, I get it.
Thanks!
This chapter of 7 might have been the most convicting to me. Not only did I evaluate how I hang onto clothes for sentimental reasons, but I thought about why I have as many clothes as I do. I care so much about how people perceive me, it’s not even funny! Your post was, by the way
It made me laugh and think hard at the same time 
Great discussions and thoughts! This book, and how the Spirit speaks, is totally rockin my world as well. I had the privilege of flying to Honduras to serve in July, and I couldn’t come home with anything. I couldn’t. Because I was coming home to a) a closet full of more clothes, and b) access to more if I wanted. It truly is such a joy to give, yet the giving till it hurts brings even more reward. At least my heads says so. When I give without expecting anything in return, the Lord can bless in ways that BLOW MY MIND. 10 days after returning from Honduras, my husband got laid off. He earned a three-figure income. I earn $0. Together that’s…. zero. And He has provided in ways BEYOND WHAT I CAN IMAGINE. In fact, today, I was invited to yet another free lunch, and the Lord let me “look” at the server, and told me to go to the closest ATM. I asked how much? He told me how much. And I promptly marched into the restaurant again and handed the server the Lord’s amount. HE’S the giver, I’m just the manager, because after all, I want more of God and less of my limited sight. And it was so joyful to give. Especially giving beyond logic. Thanks for sharing in the journey girls!
Uranus is a planet still! It doesn’t feature when your mother serves those nine
Awesome
I never liked that one. They could have done away with it and kept Pluto 
Loved your post. I am reading 7 by Jen as well and this chapter on clothes has got me thinking about my clothes and my relationship to clothes. I laughed when I read how you had flung out your summer clothes because you did this in winter. I at first thought I wouldn’t have as much clothes but then I did a quick summary check and well I have more than I thought. A lot of could wear again, and being ill my weight has changed a lot so requiring new purchases but I think for me it has also been about how I feel about myself when wearing clothes I feel I look okay in, my confidence attached to body image perhaps, something I need to think about more. I feel a closet clean out coming up though very soon. Thank you for sharing.
darling, why did you need to pray IN a closet? Were you taking the Bible literally when it says it’s better to pray in the closet and be all humble, versus being an ass-hat yellin’ about your prayers in the middle of the street?
lol! This cracked me up! That AND there was no where private in our communal dorms