Get Rid of Junk Mail

“Pity your poor mail carriers. Their shoulders must burn under the mailbag strap as they haul each day’s mail to your desk.”

—KEVIN A. MILLER

Avoid it… turn from it and pass on.

—Proverbs 4:15

Most of us get all kinds of mail we do not want. I can remember feeling somewhat guilty trying to throw mail away without reading it, until God showed me I am not obligated to read something just because somebody sent it to me uninvited. If I do that, then they are the ones controlling my life instead of me.

Have you ever purchased something by mail order only to find out three months later you were getting a hundred different magazines you never asked for? Then, did you call all of them and ask to be removed from their mailing list, never to be taken off? That’s happened to me and I don’t like it.

It is sad that today we can look at a pile of mail and feel overwhelmed before we even start going through it. I don’t imagine we can keep people from sending it in today’s society, but at least we don’t have to keep it. Throw away mail you don’t want. Don’t keep it in case you ever get around to reading it. If it is not important enough to look at now, or at least in the next few days, chances are you will never look at it.

I have been as many as twenty issues behind in reading one little magazine I get. I kept piling them up, planning to read them someday. Then one day I got tired of looking at the pile and gave all of them away at the office. I still get one every month because someone sends it to me as a gift and I do enjoy it when time permits, but now I give it away when it comes in unless I know I will have time to read it soon.

The only way to avoid having piles of stuff all over the house, which is one of my biggest pet peeves, is to systematically move them on. Either throw them away or give them away if they have value, but for goodness’ sake, don’t just keep them!