Doing the Laundry

Today was laundry day here at the Holcomb house. That is not such a big deal. It was probably laundry day at many houses. It may be laundry day at your house, too. The difference for us was that for the first time in more years than I can remember, laundry day meant a trip to a laundry-mat.

Our dryer decided to wage a strike a week or so ago, so Amy strung a clothes line on which she has been hanging our freshly washed clothes to dry. That is not such a big deal either. Many folks still use clothes lines, I think. We celebrated the raising of the clothes line with pictures after which I officially welcomed Amy to the sticks. A bonus is that clothes take no electrical energy to dry on a line. We are hoping it helps on our electric bill. So, we are in no hurry to buy another dryer. Amy says you can not see those pictures, though I can not imagine why not.

We loaded basket after basket that was pressed down shaken together and running over. We got a roll of quarters and a few dollar bills just in case we had underestimated how much it would cost to wash and dry 12-15 loads of laundry. I was certain two rolls would be too much, after all, each roll is worth $10. (Amy is so proud I am telling this story so please pray for me)

Two hours, two regular washer loads, three triple washer loads, three ungowa-sized washer loads, and six dryer loads later, praise the Lord, we were finished. Wives don't you love how I am using the inclusive "we" pronoun in this story? Oh, did I mention that I had indeed underestimated the cost? Well, I did. Our little trip to the laundry-mat cost us about $45. See, I knew two rolls of quarters was not right.

With bad weather coming, Amy knew she would not get to hang clothes for a few days and we needed to get our stuff clean. We did it all at once, but since we had quite a bit to do, it cost us quite a bit more than I expected.

Sin in our lives can be like a pile of dirty clothes that will not clean themselves. The pile gets bigger and bigger until someone deals with it. As the pile grows, the person may get intimidated by it and want to ignore it. The pile never goes away by itself though and neither does our sin.

As sin lingers and grows in our lives we may want to ignore it. We may feel overwhelmed by it and convince ourselves that it has become so large that we will always be defeated by it. Satan would like for God's children to believe that kind of lie. The Devil wants you and I to live in fear, shame, and defeat, but God says He has given us the Spirit of power, and love and a sound mind.

God desires that we live free from the burden of sin. He promises that if we will confess our sins that He will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What a wonderful God we serve. We would do well to deal with sin quickly when we let it in our lives. But even if we let the pile grow and we feel overwhelmed, God is still quick to forgive and cleanse.

Go to the laundry-mat at the throne of God and take care of any dirty laundry you may have. All of our laundry is clean. It cost more than I expected but we dealt with it and now it is done. Sin can cost us more than what we expect, so let us deal with it today for we may not want to know the cost of waiting until tomorrow.

Because He lives,

Robby