The Sin of Laundry Stains
I’m a mom. That means there are lots of chores around the house that fall on my shoulders. Sometimes it’s because they require more adult decisions and maturity, and sometimes it’s because I border on having a perfectionistic streak that almost makes me seem OCD.
Laundry is one of those chores. Week after week on one of the last days of the week, the washer runs from 7 in the morning until 5 or 6 at night. In good weather, the washlines are full of jeans and tops and skirts (not bras and underwear because it might embarrass all the old retired dudes in the neighborhood).
My requests in exchange for my joyful (slave) labor is that all pockets are cleared and that stained articles are set aside for me to process. Even better would be if the articles are pre-treated on the day of the stain, but that’s a stretch and a digression.
My family has committed an epic fail in this area, not once, but twice this month. No, fail is too weak; they’ve committed grand mortal laundry sin. I’m feeling weak and impotent, taken for granted, and ignored (well, maybe teen melodrama is contagious).
In one case, either the daughter or the step-dad failed to remove an ink pen; I now have three denim pallets for a grand experiment in creating Jackson Pollack knock-offs with screen printing ink that I’ll have to iron.
In the other case, the newly-employed daughter with only two uniforms got some sticky, tacky, hard, dark substance. Luckily, I did find it in time to try to treat it, but it failed to come out. I have it set aside to try yet again to remove it; I will fill a tub with too much water that I temporarily pay for (still waiting for our fire shell to be filled and finished so I’m not on my free well water and I don’t have my washer with adjustable tub levels).
The point is, when my family fails to communicate their clothing issues with me, it makes it hard for me to clean the clothes properly and I end up with more work and tons of projects I don’t have time to do. They look like Pigpen and I feel like crap.
But I wonder how many of us who claim to follow Christ have this same problem?
Sin stains our souls. Any sin leaves a mark behind. How many of us refuse to confess the stain to Jesus? How often do we try to hide the problem, pretend it doesn’t exist, hoping it will go away on its own?
Yes, the Lord is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, but there is a caveat. He’s a gentleman and has to follow His rules. He won’t force His people to make the choices He wants them to make; they have to willing choose His way due to that free will thing. His rule is the forgiveness comes if and only if we confess our sins and repent.
We may also have to do a little pre-treating of the sin stain through the application of specific Bible bits that directly apply. It may also take the elbow grease of frequent prayer.
We have to do the work with the Lord’s help. We can’t do it for our Christian brothers and sisters, any more than they can do it for us. It is our choice and our choice alone to honor His commands
Happy wash day! *walks away muttering repent, rinse, repeat; repent, rinse, repeat*
Isaiah 1:18, International Children’s Bible: The Lord says, “Come, we will talk these things over. Your sins are red like deep red cloth. But they can be as white as snow. Your sins are bright red. But you can be white like wool.”
