October 14, 2015
Oh, laundry. The theme of a mama’s life. A constant companion when others neglect her. It’s there. Lurking. Longing to be washed, dried, and put away.
I cannot begin to guess how many loads of laundry have been washed in this house. Feels like we must have passed the millionth mark by now. The baby years are behind me with the spit-up laced onesies and sweet-potato coated bibs. But the teen years are waiting with open arms to greet me with defiling odors and sports-induced grass stains.
But I’ve learned something through the loads and years. It’s not the washing that’s the difficult part to face. It’s not even the drying. No. Those tasks can be started in minutes and then completed while watching TV or even while sleeping.
No, it’s the putting it all away that’s the thorn in the side of clothes maintenance. The folding, the separating. The journey from the laundry room to the appropriate drawers and closets. That’s the chore.
Because you see, sometimes, we come face to face with the dirt in our lives. We know what has to be done. We confess it. We know we are forgiven and washed clean.
But the putting it away. That’s the challenging task.
Stop letting it pile up in your heart. Put it away.
Stop wallowing in the wrinkles of the old self. Put it away.
Stop returning to the labels attached to the past. Put it away.
Cling fast to His promises of forgiveness and freedom. We don’t have time to stay wadded up in our old ways.
We have laundry to do.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-14
Sometimes the hardest thing to put away is guilt. It’s time to realize that forgiveness is for you too. Read here about escaping the stickiness of guilt.