Laundry And Learning To Trust
It was the middle of winter. We had been praying for another job for our cabinet shop, when we got a phone call for a measurement about an hour and forty minutes away. Taking nearly the last of what money we had, we filled our van with gas, and thanked God for the potential job.
The house was brand new. It had been an insurance case where the original house had burned. I was shocked to learn the cause of fire. They had been doing laundry, and like many of us do, took the laundry out of the dryer, dumped it on the couch, and left. What they didn’t know, and neither had I, is that under the right conditions laundry left in a heap can raise in temperature and spontaneously combust.
It was unlikely we would get the job, as we were told they already had a cabinet maker and were only using us to compare pricing. We headed home disappointed and discouraged wondering why God hadn’t stopped us from the wasted trip. We continued to pray that He would bring an even better job.
A couple weeks later I was over my head in my own laundry. One of the joys of living in a small northern town is the high risk of children bringing home head lice. (LOL as I was typing I caught myself scratching my head.) I treated heads and stripped bedrooms of any laundry and teddy-bears. Everything had to be washed or heat treated. By the end of the day I was exhausted, but the house smelled fresh and clean.
While tucking our youngest daughter into bed I smelled something hot and what smelled like smoke. I scanned the room and there at the foot of her bed was a stack of freshly laundered stuffed animals. I quickly discovered they were very hot to touch and flung them across the floor. I was horrified at the thought of what could have happened! “What if we hadn’t gone on that trip to do the measurement? Would I have even had the insight to check the pile of stuffed animals? Suddenly my grumbling about a wasted trip and irritated thoughts, such as “How could someone do that to you when they knew the distance you had to travel…”, turned into praising God! Once again God was tapping me on the shoulder reminding me to trust Him.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek His will in all you do and He will show you which path to take.”
Proverbs 3: 5 & 6 NLT
Just the post I needed today – I always tend to trust in my own understanding thank you Shawna for reminding us the necessity of always remaining humble before Our God Almighty.
It never fails, or I should say HE never fails. On days when I am discouraged and spend time thinking how…… HE reminds me of HIS conversation with Job. Where were you when I was creating. Trust me and my time.
Thank you Shawna, a gentle, quirky, but love my Jesus reminder
Oh my…this story made my heart beat fast and brought a tear to my eye. What a glorious reminder of God’s never-ending love and care for us. Thank you for sharing!