My Take on the Laundry

a sweet romantic moment. gayline had been away all day in personal quiet time, i'd asked her to go out on a date, and we were just heading out the door. it was then that she noticed the laundry that i'd done for her while she'd been away. i used to do the laundry a lot, but hadn't put my hand to it recently. but hey, i could handle it. all's cool.

until she noticed two tops of hers that i'd washed. they were distinctly--well shall we say--differently sized than the last time she'd seen them. it had been one of those brain freeze moments for me. hot water for whites; cold water for colors-somehow the formula had gotten reversed and in the end i had made two of her just recently purchased blouses hand-me-down items for her three year old grand-daughter.

tough moment. well intentioned acts of love turning into unforeseen moments of stress. life is filled with such relationship crises. add in the all-too-frequent intentional acts of self and sin, and life becomes a hothouse for anger, bitterness, and more sin.

so how did gayline respond? her face showed a three second battle with disappointment, anger, and loss; then it passed. in the crucible of disappointment over an idiotic move by her husband, she remembered mercy. am i glad she did!

she thought the best. she put her mind on my intentions, not on my mistakes. she overlooked my carelessness locking in instead on my well-intentioned care. she judged me charitably and graciously in the heat of the moment. as she has done time and again, she showed mercy to this sinful and bumbling man. so off we went on our date as if it hadn't happened at all. now that's an amazing display of grace!

gayline would tell you that it helps her to remember how much mercy she's received from her God. she'd tell you that the more she knows her own heart and her own sins and the grace of God in the face of them, the easier it gets to show grace to me and others. i for one am pretty grateful it is so.

i hope that today i can show this kind of grace to her, to others, to all. after all, with paul, i'm the worst sinner i know, and God is merciful to me. who am i to hold anything against anyone for any reason at all?

Today i want to choose mercy; the better way.