One Load At A Time

This year’s MOPS theme is The Home Factor and our group has been using the concept of different rooms in our home from book My Heart ~ Christ’s Home for each meeting.  Our MOPS group does an amazing job of decorating for the theme and then serveing a wonderful, delicious buffet of food.  It truly makes each Mom feel special for the few hours she has for herself.

Last week, the room featured was “The Laundry Room” — there were laundry lines with clothes hanging, a drying rack and of course laundry baskets.  Our Hospitality Steering Co-leaders are so creative.  My devotions were on “One Load At A Time”.  Here is what the Lord gave me to share with my MOPS Moms…

In the laundry world - there are 2 ways to do laundry.  

•  To do loads as needed - usually do 1 or 2 loads every day

Or

• To save all the laundry for one full day of laundry

As I prepared for this devotion, I did a Google Search on laundry and it showed me some amazing, organized, beautifully decorated laundry rooms.  I learned how to remove different stains.  Each detergent had its own website with outstanding features.  But, no matter how or when you organize your laundry or what detergent you use - there still is only one way to do it - and that is One Load At A Time.

And that is just how we are to live our lives - one day at a time.  Listen to how God tells us to live …

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”

 ”And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Matthew 6:25-30

Daily Living is hard.  It is just like our laundry - no matter how many piles of clothes we have to do, we can only do one load at a time

Today there is probably so much on your to do list - mothering, marriage, cleaning, relationships, career, maybe even laundry - but guess what - you can only do what God has called you to do today.  Wishing you had done things different yesterday or looking forward to tomorrow is not going to change what you have to do today.

Let me give you an example; when I was first diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes (type 1) as a young bride at 21 years old - I was so overwhelmed.  My entire life was in an upheaval.  Not only was I a new bride (we had been married a week), but now I was facing a chronic illness that would never leave me.  In those early days, I was so discouraged with (what is now considered primitive) diabetes care - the shots, urine testing and hospital visits.  To even think about looking ahead to having this disease 26 1/2 years later - I would never have been able to deal with it.  I specifically remember preparing to go on a trip and laying out all of my diabetes supplies; the site of all of it made me cry and cry.  That day, the Lord began to teach me that I needed to deal with my diabetes one day at a time - one injection at a time, one meal at a time, one blood test at a time.  Going anywhere else, but today would always get me in trouble.  When I look back and see how the disease has affected our family and my life, it brings pain. When I look ahead to the future and the troubles it might hold, it brings me fear.  But when I chose to deal with today, I seek the Lord’s grace and protection to handle what the day brings.

The same is true for many of you - for some of you it is thinking about the future for your children with their learning disabilities or behavior problems and you wonder what it will be like for them, how will they handle it and what is the answer.  For others it is your financial situation and the hopelessness of it, at this point, there is no way out and you wonder how you will manage.  Or, there might be the problem of your marriage to a man who is not on the same page as you spiritually, emotionally or physically, and right now you can hardly even imagine the rest of the month with him let alone the rest of your life with him.   

But what is God actually calling you to do today, not yesterday and not tomorrow, but today?  He is calling you to do it one load at a time ~ just like your laundry.  You and I both know what happens when we cram too many clothes in our washer - they don’t get clean,  the colors run or the washer spins out of control and starts like walking across the room like it is coming to get you - scary!!  We usually end up with more work for ourselves than if we would have just done one load at a time.

The same is true of your life - God is only calling you to handle what He has given you today.  I know that today your job description today includes being a mom and probably a wife - maybe a daughter and a household manager - throw in a cook, perhaps a nurse or how about a friend - whatever - these are your jobs for today.  Tomorrow will bring something new, maybe your toddler will start walking or maybe your husband will bring home a pink slip.  Or maybe something really wonderful will happen like you will win a trip to Latvia or perhaps even something tragic.  But that doesn’t matter right now, because God is calling you to live one day at a time, trusting in Him for guidance, support and love for today. 

I actually do my laundry once a week, I save it and get it all done in a few hours.  My daughter’s tease me about how picky I am about how my laundry is sorted and what is washed with what (they claim it is because I am not using quarters for the washer).  I love Shout Color Catchers, liquid detergent (which my neighbor thinks is unthinkable) and to fold my laundry right out of the dryer (I do not iron!!).  I am really good at getting stains out (probably because I spill a lot).  But even with all my idiocies, I still can only do one load at a time. 

One Load At A Time - One Day At A Time.  Okay Lord, I get it (or least I do for today).