I have been a “bag lady” for years.  I have a different “bag” for the different areas in my life. For me it helps to keep me organized and to not be overwhelmed.  Currently I have a Tribute Center bag, a Wacky Wednesday bag, a Kids First Ministries bag, a Quizzing bag and a mom bag. Twenty years ago the mom bag would have been because I was a mom with small children but now it is because my mom is in rehab and I use the mom bag to transport her mail and laundry. Through the years I have had a dance bag, a diaper bag, a bag of tricks for entertaining children in the car, and a lunch bag. I even had a cancer bag for when I had chemo. The chemo bag had peppermints, a bottle of water, tissues, magazines and a book. That bag transitioned into a radiation bag that held aloe lotion with vitamin E.  At one point in life my dance bag had my ballet shoes, a copy of Backstage, my leotard, tights, hair stuff and makeup. But through the years the dance bag changed to carry choreography notes, cassette tapes or CDs with music, new stickers for the kids at the studio, bank statements and drawings from my students.

When my daughters were little the diaper bag contained the normal kid stuff – diapers, change of clothing, bottle, toys and wipes.  There were times I thought I should have packed a change of clothing for myself due to the fact they had thrown up on me or wet through their diaper. As my girls got older, I decided they should pack their own bags especially when we were going on a trip.  When packing for our 5 week National Park camping trip, the girls were allowed a backpack of stuff for in the truck and the rest of their stuff went into a “restock bag”.  They were also allowed one stuffed animal. My younger daughter did pick one stuffed animal but it was a white bear that was as big as she was 🙂

For some reason my bags make me think of “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…He has made everything beautiful in its time.”