The Catch-All at Our House

I'm sure you don't have a catch-all desk or chair or counter at your house like we do at ours.
It's just so easy to dump this and that on this desk.
So easy to clear things off the table and set it here instead of taking it where it belongs.

I was thinking about catch-alls a couple days ago as I was clearing this desk.
It reminded me of catch-alls in relationships--the black sheep, the scapegoats, the people that others like to blame and dump responsibility upon instead of going to the trouble of taking responsibility themselves for their part in problems, or checking out the facts before placing responsibility where it needs to be.
Taking personal responsibility is like simply taking the stuff from where it does not belong
and placing it where it does--in your own room, in the drawer or shelf or out in the garage.
If you don't know where it goes, ask someone who does.
Sometimes the thing is just plain trash and needs to be thrown away and forgotten about.
Not everything that lands on you deserves to be kept in a special place.
Some of it just needs to be tossed into the trash,
or into something my mother used to call her "mystery bag."
We've all been guilty of dumping blame on people who really weren't responsible or who were only partly responsible for fiascos that happened.
And we've all been on the receiving end where blame and responsibility was dumped on us where it didn't belong.
It's very painful, and one can spend years trying to recover. 
Like, "Who forgot to clean the lint-catcher in the dryer? Looks like it went through several loads without being cleaned!"

Yes, I pulled this whole wad out of the dryer lint screen!
But the girls were gone, so nobody got fussed at. I just cleaned it out and went on with life.
The same girls who forgot to clean out the lint make the cutest, yummiest cookies.
I'd rather focus on the beautiful things my girls do for the family and others than on the mistakes they make and the things they forget.

 It is not a sin to compliment our children, to be proud of them and tell them so.

I want them to be glad they belong to our family.

Let's let some kind words fall on some listening ears today rather than finding someone to be the catch-all of blame and complaints.