Laundry

I am thoroughly enjoying being a stay-at-home wife. For two years, I have loved Rob from a distance, longing to serve and help him and being so completely unable to do so. Now, at last, I share his home, and I can use my time, energy, and skills to make his life easier.

One thing I've never been super great at is laundry. By not super great, I don't mean that I can't do laundry. Mostly, it's always been an issue of remembering that it's in the machine. You know, you remember six hours later that you started a load. Well, I now have a husband, meaning we now generate twice as much laundry as I used to alone. I have done quite a bit of laundry just in the week and a half I've been here. I have learned two things.

1) My forgetfulness can be wholly contributed to the machines I've always used. We now have front loaders that literally sing a victory song when your load is done, effectively helping me to remember that I need to go switch it out! I think this is about as great as pumpkin pie...it's the little things in life.

2) One slight incident with some white T-shirts (Rob's wardrobe staple) and a pair of yellow underwear (*sigh*) started me thinking about the verse in Isaiah that talks about our being as filthy rags:

All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags... (64:6a)

Long story short, I "took out a whole fleet" of Rob's white shirts. Yes, those were his words :D. We bleached them, and some/most of the bright yellow stains came out. As I was folding the load, I laid one shirt to the side. I glanced back at it and realized that, laying there alone, it looked fine. Not brilliantly white by any means, but sufficiently clean. However, I laid one of his brand new shirts down next to it and I realized just how dingy, dirty, and ready for the rag pile this shirt was.

Our lives can be like this. If we ignore the standards of Christ and choose to live on our own, we can often make a fairly good go of it. We get the "good person" syndrome. In the eyes of ourselves and the world, we're doin' alright.

But the moment we set ourselves up next to Christ, we "become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags". In the brilliant radiance of His holiness and purity, we realize how dirty and unholy we are. Yet there is hope! Isaiah 1:18 declares God's promise for those who allow Him to cleanse them of sin:

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Amen! Thank you, Father, for your overwhelming mercy to us who sin against you! Jesus, your sacrifice allows us to stand in the presence of the Almighty, washed as white as snow. Thank you! Spirit, teach us more each day and open our eyes to areas of sin that we have not surrendered to Your cleansing flood. Thank you, God!!
Amen.