Well as I am very late in updates, I realize my Easter blog is way delinquent but I have a great excuse simply that thing called Spring Break with kids home. But lets get down to business.
Do you have a deep dark stain in your laundry that is peskily persistent? I am amazed at how much laundry a family of 5 produces. Particularly my family of 5. I keep telling my children in a fit of exhaustion that they are going to one day wake up and find me dead under a huge pile of stinky laundry and wonder what happened. I love those old Tide commercials, the Mom looks so happy to put the singular grass stained soccer shirt in her machine and takes so much confidence in the Tide product. As a young girl watching commercials like this, laundry for a Mom looked easy and borderline glamorous. I now know the truth. Six loads at least with sheets and towels and no sexy spin cycle either just heavy loads of dirt stained clothes going up and down stairs only to find them making their way down the stairs to the machine again. Also did you ever realize they never cast a handsome young male role model to aid in the gender bending role of men knowing how a washing machine works. Madison Avenue in my opinion lost the plot on this aspect of the feminist movement. We’ve got the birth control pill but you can’t cast a man in a Tide commercial?
While this seemingly endless laundry has no end in sight, the life lessons cleaned from laundry or the much needed zen activity of folding has served me well in times of need. This week was an example of that. So I ask again, do you have any stains on that nice clean new white shirt from LL Bean that just won’t come out no matter how many times you seem to wash it? You’ve tried the Oxy-Clean, Shout or maybe even bleach. As I was sitting down with a friend, okay it was my husband...having a very deep intellectual debate shall we say...okay it was a knock out argument...about some theological issue that was at hand in regards to approaching an issue with our kids. It wasn’t the Tooth Fairy either. We were discussing how to get rid of a some persistent “stains” as we will call them that seem to be most persistent in our methods of communication. The reason for our conversation was how to navigate the Harry Potter road to witchcraft issue that will be and is creeping into our laundry. It’s like a pen stain really and we are not quite sure how to educate our kids on the fact and truth that they should not participate in things that the Bible says are not of God. The issue or argument was not should be teach our children but the hows and whys that we should go about doing our job as Christian parents.
I will say this, at this point, that we feel like we are hang gliding at this point in navigating the cultural abstinence from certain things as neither of us had fully Christian homes that give us an example to follow. Anyway to cut to the chase, I did not handle the situation well and my husband and I disagreed with the hows and whys and thus a full blown argument came about.
Now here is the aspect of laundry stains. If we have persistent “outbursts of rage” or “dissension” and my personal favorite, “discord” how is that any different from actually practicing the occult in your kitchen? It’s not. Galations 5 says the acts of flesh are obvious and “outbursts of rage” and “discord” are right up there with debauchery and orgies...even witchcraft. So, in all this I have kept coming up to the persistent stain in my own life of having to “feel” right and let go of certain arguments before the get into the “dissension” stage. The good news is that we both acknowledged our Galations 5 “stains” from our mutual flesh attack at that time an all is well.
I trust Tide to get stains out, but ultimately I trust Jesus that by His sacrifice that he continually cleanses me from my sins...especially those pesky persistent ones that creep up unexpectedly like a pizza stain on a linen jacket. This Easter I take continual confidence and awe that Jesus is my laundry man. In His economy, I don’t have to do a thing to wash my clothes.
Do you have a deep dark stain in your laundry that is peskily persistent? I am amazed at how much laundry a family of 5 produces. Particularly my family of 5. I keep telling my children in a fit of exhaustion that they are going to one day wake up and find me dead under a huge pile of stinky laundry and wonder what happened. I love those old Tide commercials, the Mom looks so happy to put the singular grass stained soccer shirt in her machine and takes so much confidence in the Tide product. As a young girl watching commercials like this, laundry for a Mom looked easy and borderline glamorous. I now know the truth. Six loads at least with sheets and towels and no sexy spin cycle either just heavy loads of dirt stained clothes going up and down stairs only to find them making their way down the stairs to the machine again. Also did you ever realize they never cast a handsome young male role model to aid in the gender bending role of men knowing how a washing machine works. Madison Avenue in my opinion lost the plot on this aspect of the feminist movement. We’ve got the birth control pill but you can’t cast a man in a Tide commercial?
While this seemingly endless laundry has no end in sight, the life lessons cleaned from laundry or the much needed zen activity of folding has served me well in times of need. This week was an example of that. So I ask again, do you have any stains on that nice clean new white shirt from LL Bean that just won’t come out no matter how many times you seem to wash it? You’ve tried the Oxy-Clean, Shout or maybe even bleach. As I was sitting down with a friend, okay it was my husband...having a very deep intellectual debate shall we say...okay it was a knock out argument...about some theological issue that was at hand in regards to approaching an issue with our kids. It wasn’t the Tooth Fairy either. We were discussing how to get rid of a some persistent “stains” as we will call them that seem to be most persistent in our methods of communication. The reason for our conversation was how to navigate the Harry Potter road to witchcraft issue that will be and is creeping into our laundry. It’s like a pen stain really and we are not quite sure how to educate our kids on the fact and truth that they should not participate in things that the Bible says are not of God. The issue or argument was not should be teach our children but the hows and whys that we should go about doing our job as Christian parents.
I will say this, at this point, that we feel like we are hang gliding at this point in navigating the cultural abstinence from certain things as neither of us had fully Christian homes that give us an example to follow. Anyway to cut to the chase, I did not handle the situation well and my husband and I disagreed with the hows and whys and thus a full blown argument came about.
Now here is the aspect of laundry stains. If we have persistent “outbursts of rage” or “dissension” and my personal favorite, “discord” how is that any different from actually practicing the occult in your kitchen? It’s not. Galations 5 says the acts of flesh are obvious and “outbursts of rage” and “discord” are right up there with debauchery and orgies...even witchcraft. So, in all this I have kept coming up to the persistent stain in my own life of having to “feel” right and let go of certain arguments before the get into the “dissension” stage. The good news is that we both acknowledged our Galations 5 “stains” from our mutual flesh attack at that time an all is well.
I trust Tide to get stains out, but ultimately I trust Jesus that by His sacrifice that he continually cleanses me from my sins...especially those pesky persistent ones that creep up unexpectedly like a pizza stain on a linen jacket. This Easter I take continual confidence and awe that Jesus is my laundry man. In His economy, I don’t have to do a thing to wash my clothes.
Even if you were raised in a fully Christian home, your trials would be similar to what you have now... the spiritual atmosphere has changed. What was is no more... apathy and compromise has overtaken the church. Today we are all seeking wisdom and understanding to change our hearts to be filled with zeal for God. It is coming and keep the Tide handy!
ReplyDeleteI might add two Christian parents that agree on Biblical principles do aid in direction when it comes to the "how to solve" certain issues. Like Father like Son. It's not right on my part to for "shock value" or "fundamentalism" style parenting start quoting from Leviticus the punishment of consulting a medium under the law because I have control issues. In this argument, my husband was right...and in my own role as wife and mother need to allow the authority of my home guide us unless it goes against scripture. We don't need our children blabbing what Mom says "in flesh" to people at the school....
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